UK Business Day Calculator

This calculator counts Monday to Friday as business days and leaves out the bank holidays gov.uk publishes for England and Wales, which differ from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland. When a bank holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, gov.uk lists a substitute weekday, and the calculator leaves that day out instead: Boxing Day 2026 falls on a Saturday, so Monday 28 December 2026 is the bank holiday.

The calculator holds these eight bank holidays for England and Wales in each year from 2024 to 2029:

• New Year's Day (1 January)
• Good Friday
• Easter Monday
• Early May bank holiday (the first Monday in May in each of those years)
• Spring bank holiday (the last Monday in May in each of those years)
• Summer bank holiday (the last Monday in August in each of those years)
• Christmas Day (25 December)
• Boxing Day (26 December)

The dates of the moveable holidays change each year, and a holiday that falls on a weekend moves to the substitute weekday gov.uk lists. For the years gov.uk lists, the dates are its own: read on 13 October 2026, gov.uk listed England and Wales up to 2028. The calculator's dates for 2029 are not on gov.uk and follow the same pattern. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different bank holidays; their pages are linked above. How we determine holidays →

Section 4 of the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 measures its periods in days, with no mention of business days or working days. Statutory interest on a qualifying debt starts to run on the day after the relevant day. Where no payment day is agreed, the relevant day is the last day of a 30-day period that begins with the latest of the days subsection (2H) lists, among them the day the supplier performs its obligation and the day the purchaser has notice of the amount of the debt. Where a payment day is agreed, the relevant day is that day, with three exceptions: for a purchaser that is a public authority, the last day of the 30-day period if it falls earlier; for any other purchaser, the last day of the matching 60-day period if it falls earlier, unless the agreed day is not grossly unfair to the supplier; and for an advance payment, the day subsection (2G) gives.

Where your contract counts a period in business days, this calculator counts it with the bank holidays of England and Wales. Court time limits are a separate matter: the Civil Procedure Rules apply in the County Court, the High Court and the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal (rule 2.1, with the exceptions it lists). Rule 2.8 computes a period expressed as a number of days as clear days, which leaves out the day on which the period begins and, if the end of the period is defined by reference to an event, the day of that event. Where the specified period is 5 days or less, a Saturday, Sunday, Bank Holiday, Christmas Day or Good Friday in it does not count.