No. There is no law that says you must have paid leave on public holidays. Any right to paid time off for such holidays depends on the terms of your contract. If your contract doesn't specify this, the right to paid leave may have built up at your company through custom and practice. Your employer can make you take public holidays from your 5.6 weeks' holiday entitlement under the Working Time Regulations 1998.

Public holidays include bank holidays, holidays by Royal Proclamation and 'common law holidays'. When the Christmas and New Year period covers a weekend, alternative week days are declared public holidays.

Your employer must include details of your holidays and holiday pay entitlement in: 

• your written contract, if you have one
• a written statement about your job that they must give you when you start work

The written statement is required by law: your employer must give it to you no later than two months after they employ you. It should contain enough detail to allow your entitlement to be precisely calculated, including any entitlement you might have to accrued holiday if your employment is terminated.

Most workers - whether part-time or full-time - are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid annual leave. Additional annual leave may be agreed as part of a worker's contract. A week's leave should allow workers to be away from work for a week – ie it should be the same amount of time as the working week. If a worker does a five-day week, he or she is entitled to 28 days leave. If he or she does a three-day week, the entitlement is 16.8 days leave. Employers can set the times that workers take their leave, for example for a Christmas shutdown. If a worker's employment ends, he or she has a right to be paid for the leave time due and not taken.

 The Work and Families Act does not create a legal right to have a paid day off on Bank Holidays and this remains a contractual matter.

For further information see Businesslink.gov.uk - Know how much holiday to give your staff . Businesslink also provide a useful interactive tool to calculate your employee's annual leave entitlement.

No. There is no statutory entitlement to paid leave for public holidays. Any right to paid time off for such holidays depends on the terms of the worker's contract. If the contract doesn't specify this, the right to paid leave may have built up through custom and practice. Paid public holidays can be counted as part of the statutory 5.6 weeks' holiday entitlement under the Working Time Regulations 1998.

Public holidays include bank holidays, holidays by Royal Proclamation and 'common law holidays'. When the Christmas and New Year period covers a weekend, alternative week days are declared public holidays.

You should include details of your employees' holidays and holiday pay entitlement in:

• your employees' written contracts, where they exist
• a written statement of employment particulars which you must give to each employee

The written statement is required by law: you must give it to each employee no later than two months after their employment starts. It should contain enough detail to allow each employee's entitlement to be precisely calculated, including any entitlement to accrued holiday on termination of employment.

Most workers - whether part-time or full-time - are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid annual leave. Additional annual leave may be agreed as part of a worker's contract.

A week's leave should allow workers to be away from work for a week – ie it should be the same amount of time as the working week. If a worker does a five-day week, he or she is entitled to 28 days leave. If he or she does a three-day week, the entitlement is 16.8 days leave. Employers can set the times that workers take their leave, for example for a Christmas shutdown. If a worker's employment ends, he or she has a right to be paid for the leave time due and not taken.

The Work and Families Act does not create a legal right to have a paid day off on Bank Holidays and this remains a contractual matter.

For further information see Holiday Entitlement (BIS website) at the Department for