Scotland Business Day Calculator

Scotland's own holidays, year by year

A holiday defined by a rule (the first Monday of a month, the Friday before Easter) keeps its weekday and moves its date; one defined by a date keeps its date and moves its weekday. The table gives Scotland's own days for each year:

A cell reading "not on the list" marks a bank holiday on England and Wales that is not on Scotland's list that year.

How Scotland's own dates move from year to year

The Schedule to the 1971 Act gives 2 January and St Andrew's Day different weekend rules: 2 January moves only off a Sunday, and St Andrew's Day moves off a Saturday or a Sunday to the first Monday after. gov.uk lists a substitute weekday in both cases, and section 1(2) is the Act's power to appoint another day in place of a Schedule day by proclamation. Across the years this calculator covers: 2024: 2 January on Tuesday, January 2, St Andrew's Day on Monday, December 2; 2025: 2 January on Thursday, January 2, St Andrew's Day on Monday, December 1; 2026: 2 January on Friday, January 2, St Andrew's Day on Monday, November 30; 2027: 2 January on Monday, January 4, St Andrew's Day on Tuesday, November 30; 2028: 2 January on Tuesday, January 4, St Andrew's Day on Thursday, November 30.

Two England and Wales bank holidays are not on Scotland's list: Easter Monday, which moves with Easter, and the last Monday in August, where Scotland's list has the first Monday instead. For each of the two that a span crosses, a deadline counted on Scotland's list falls one working day earlier than on the England and Wales list, unless the span also crosses a bank holiday that only Scotland has.

Every weekday where Scotland and England and Wales part company, 2024 to 2028

A Scotland count and a count on England and Wales give the same answer unless the span crosses one of these dates. Each bank holiday that only Scotland has on a weekday pushes a Scotland deadline one working day later; each one that only England and Wales has pulls it one day earlier.

26 dates across five years. Weekend holidays are left out because they take no working day either way.

Worked counts across Scotland's own dates

Each example starts on the working day before a date from the table above and adds three working days on both calendars, computed by the same engine as the calculator:

• From Friday, December 29, 2023, three working days in Scotland reach Friday, January 5; on England and Wales they reach Thursday, January 4. The difference is 2nd January on Tuesday, January 2.
• From Thursday, March 28, 2024, three working days in Scotland reach Wednesday, April 3; on England and Wales they reach Thursday, April 4. The difference is Easter Monday on Monday, April 1.
• From Friday, August 2, 2024, three working days in Scotland reach Thursday, August 8; on England and Wales they reach Wednesday, August 7. The difference is Summer Bank Holiday on Monday, August 5.
• From Friday, November 29, 2024, three working days in Scotland reach Thursday, December 5; on England and Wales they reach Wednesday, December 4. The difference is St Andrew's Day (observed) on Monday, December 2.
• From Friday, June 12, 2026, three working days in Scotland reach Thursday, June 18; on England and Wales they reach Wednesday, June 17. The difference is World Cup Bank Holiday on Monday, June 15.

Scotland working days by year

Each year's total is its weekdays less the holidays that land on them, so the gap to England and Wales is exactly the holidays on a weekday that only one of the two lists has that year.

Scotland dates for the calculator's Advanced options

The UK calculator counts England and Wales. Its Advanced options accept extra dates to exclude, one per line and nothing else on the line, so pasting this block adds Scotland's own weekday dates for 2024 to 2028. The table above names each date.

2024-01-02
2024-08-05
2024-12-02
2025-01-02
2025-08-04
2025-12-01
2026-01-02
2026-06-15
2026-08-03
2026-11-30
2027-01-04
2027-08-02
2027-11-30
2028-01-04
2028-08-07
2028-11-30

The options can add dates to exclude but cannot remove one, and Easter Monday on April 1, 2024, Summer Bank Holiday on August 26, 2024, Easter Monday on April 21, 2025, Summer Bank Holiday on August 25, 2025, Easter Monday on April 6, 2026, Summer Bank Holiday on August 31, 2026, Easter Monday on March 29, 2027, Summer Bank Holiday on August 30, 2027, Easter Monday on April 17, 2028, and Summer Bank Holiday on August 28, 2028 are not on Scotland's list. A span crossing any of those dates will land one working day later on the calculator than in Scotland, so correct it by one day.