NHS Scotland Annual Leave 2026/27
Last updated: 12 November 2026 · Figures verified against NHS Circular PCS(AFC)2025/6, the NHS Scotland Annual Leave Policy for Agenda for Change Staff, and the NHS Scotland Agenda for Change Handbook, Section 13.
The entitlement in days
Annual leave in Scotland rises with reckonable service, and the steps are the same as in the rest of the UK. Reckonable service is continuous previous service with any NHS employer, in any UK nation, so a move from England or Wales to Scotland does not reset the clock, and a nurse who spent six years in an English trust starts on the 29-day tier. The table below gives the entitlement in days, and the public holidays sit on top of it at every tier.
| Length of service | Annual leave | Public holidays | Total days off |
|---|---|---|---|
| On appointment | 27 days | 8 days | 35 days |
| After 5 years of reckonable service | 29 days | 8 days | 37 days |
| After 10 years of reckonable service | 33 days | 8 days | 41 days |
The days are the headline, but they are not the whole story, because Scotland and England count a day differently. A day of leave in Scotland is 7.2 hours, on the 36-hour week, against 7.5 hours in England, on the 37.5-hour week. That is why the Scottish policy expresses the entitlement in hours, and why this page does the same below. For the England position, see the annual leave guide, and for the full Scottish pay picture, see the Scotland pay guide.
The entitlement in hours on the 36-hour week
Scotland moved to a 36-hour full-time week from 1 April 2026, and the standard day became 7.2 hours. The annual leave policy is written in hours for that reason, and the hours are what the rota and the payslip actually run on. The table below gives the full entitlement in hours, taken from Table 1 of Circular PCS(AFC)2025/6.
| Length of service | Annual leave | Public holidays | Total hours | Working weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| On appointment | 194.4 hours | 57.6 hours | 252.0 hours | 7.0 weeks |
| After 5 years of reckonable service | 208.8 hours | 57.6 hours | 266.4 hours | 7.4 weeks |
| After 10 years of reckonable service | 237.6 hours | 57.6 hours | 295.2 hours | 8.2 weeks |
One figure in the table needs an honest note. The circular prints 194.5 hours for 27 days of leave at the 36-hour stage, while the arithmetic gives 194.4, because 27 times 7.2 is 194.4. The other two rows are exact, 29 times 7.2 is 208.8 and 33 times 7.2 is 237.6, and 8 times 7.2 is 57.6, so the printed 194.5 is a rounding slip in the circular itself. This page uses 194.4, and the total for the first tier is 252.0 hours, not the 252.1 the printed figure would give. If your board's paperwork says 194.5, that is where the number comes from, and the half-hour difference is the circular's, not a mistake on your rota.
The totals in working weeks are worth a look, because they show how much of the year the entitlement really is. On appointment, 252.0 hours is 7.0 working weeks at 36 hours a week. After 5 years, 266.4 hours is 7.4 weeks. After 10 years, 295.2 hours is 8.2 weeks. That is more than a month and a half of the working year at the top tier, before any carry-over, and it is the reason boards plan rotas around leave in blocks rather than single days. The annual leave calculator works out the same figures for any working pattern, including part-time and mid-year starts.
Which public holidays are fixed, and which are local
There are 8 public holidays in the year, and they split into two groups. Four are agreed nationally for NHS Scotland: 25 December, 26 December, 1 January and 2 January. The other four are determined locally by each health board, so the dates vary across Scotland, and the board confirms them each year. That local split is the reason two staff in different boards can have different public holiday dates on the rota while their entitlement in hours is identical.
In some years more or fewer than 8 public holidays fall inside the leave year, because Easter holidays can fall in March or April and straddle the 31 March year end. Any excess days are taken from the following year's allocation, so a year with 9 public holidays in it does not give you a free extra day: it borrows one from next year. The 2026/27 year is one of those years. There is an extra public holiday on 15 June 2026, for Scotland's opening game at the men's FIFA World Cup, under Circular PCS(PH)2026/1, so NHS Scotland staff have 9 public holidays inside the 2026/27 leave year, with the extra day taken from the following year's allocation.
The four national dates are also the four most likely to be worked, because wards do not close for Christmas or New Year. The rule for working one is set out below, in the section on working a public holiday. For the pay side of those days, the enhancements for night and weekend working are in the Scotland unsocial hours guide.
Part-time staff: pro rata, in hours, with two rounding rules
Part-time staff get the same entitlement pro rata to their contracted hours, and it is worked out in hours, not days. Two rounding rules apply, and they are different, so they are worth keeping separate. Annual leave is rounded to the nearest half hour. Public holiday entitlement is rounded up to the nearest half day, which is the more generous of the two, because rounding up always adds time rather than taking it away.
The table below works out three common patterns, from the full-time figures above. The weekly hours are the whole-time equivalent fraction of the 36-hour week, the leave is the full-time leave in hours times the fraction and rounded to the nearest half hour, and the public holidays are the full-time 57.6 hours times the fraction, converted to days at 7.2 hours and rounded up to the nearest half day.
| Working pattern | Hours a week | Annual leave | Public holidays | Total hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.5 whole-time equivalent, after 5 years | 18.0 hours | 104.5 hours | 28.8 hours (4.0 days) | 133.3 hours |
| 0.6 whole-time equivalent, on appointment | 21.6 hours | 116.5 hours | 36.0 hours (5.0 days) | 152.5 hours |
| 0.8 whole-time equivalent, after 10 years | 28.8 hours | 190.0 hours | 46.8 hours (6.5 days) | 236.8 hours |
Take the middle row in detail, because it shows both rounding rules at work. A nurse on 0.6 whole-time equivalent works 21.6 hours a week. Her leave is 194.4 hours times 0.6, which is 116.64 hours, and that rounds to the nearest half hour, giving 116.5 hours. Her public holidays are 57.6 hours times 0.6, which is 34.56 hours, and at 7.2 hours a day that is 4.8 days, which rounds up to the nearest half day, giving 5.0 days, or 36.0 hours. Her total is 152.5 hours. The rounding up on the public holidays is worth 0.2 of a day to her, which is 1.44 hours, and it is the policy working as written, not a payroll error.
The third row shows the same rules at the other end of the scale. A member on 0.8 whole-time equivalent, 28.8 hours a week, after 10 years, gets 237.6 hours times 0.8, which is 190.08 hours, rounding to 190.0 hours of leave. Her public holidays are 57.6 hours times 0.8, which is 46.08 hours, or 6.4 days, rounding up to 6.5 days, or 46.8 hours. Her total is 236.8 hours. And the first row shows the rounding working in the other direction: 0.5 whole-time equivalent after 5 years gives 104.4 hours by straight multiplication, which rounds to the nearest half hour, 104.5 hours, and exactly 4.0 days of public holidays, 28.8 hours, for a total of 133.3 hours. For the pay side of part-time working, see the part-time pay guide.
Starting or leaving mid-year
Your entitlement is worked out pro rata for the part of the leave year you work, and the leave year runs from 1 April to 31 March. Start halfway through the year, on 1 October 2026, on appointment, and you get half the year's entitlement: 97.2 hours of leave, from 194.4 divided by two, and 28.8 hours of public holidays, from 57.6 divided by two, which is 126.0 hours in total. The public holidays in that half of the year are the four national dates, 25 December, 26 December, 1 January and 2 January, plus the board's local dates that fall in the same period, so the board confirms the exact split.
Previous NHS service counts towards the higher tiers, so the tier you start on depends on your reckonable service, not on how long you have been with this board. Continuous previous service with any NHS employer counts, in any UK nation, under Section 12 of the handbook. A nurse with six years behind her starts on the 29-day tier even if she joined the board last month, and a nurse with eleven years starts on the 33-day tier. If you leave, untaken accrued leave is normally paid out, and the unused annual leave payout guide works out the amount by band, with the daily-rate maths and the tax position.
Working on a public holiday
Staff required to work or be on call on a general public holiday get equivalent time off in lieu at plain time, in addition to the appropriate payment for the day. That is paragraph 13.4 of the Scottish handbook, and the two parts matter: the time off in lieu replaces the public holiday itself, and the payment is on top of it, not instead of it. The time off is at plain time, so a 7.2-hour shift worked on a public holiday earns 7.2 hours of time off in lieu, to be taken as agreed with the manager.
The payment side depends on when the hours fall and which band you are on, and it is covered in the Scotland unsocial hours guide, which gives the Sunday and public holiday rates by band, and in the Scotland overtime rules guide, which covers double time on general public holidays and the 36-hour overtime threshold. The time off in lieu is not pensionable in the same way as the payment, and the pension treatment of unsocial hours and overtime is set out in the Scotland pension contributions guide.
Shift workers and the hourly basis
Where staff work shift patterns other than standard days, annual leave and public holidays are calculated on an hourly basis, so they receive neither more nor less than colleagues on standard shifts. That is paragraph 13.5 of the Scottish handbook, as updated by the 2025/6 policy and by Circular PCS(AFC)2026/2, and it is the reason the whole entitlement is published in hours. A night-shift nurse who takes a week off uses 36 hours of leave, the same as a day-shift colleague, and a part-time shift worker uses the pro rata hours from the table above.
The hourly basis also decides what a single day of leave is worth on a rota. On a 7.2-hour standard day, a day of leave is 7.2 hours, so a 12-hour night shift cannot be covered by a single day of leave: it needs 12 hours of the entitlement, which is one and two-thirds days. That catches people out when they book long shifts off, and it is worth checking the balance in hours, not days, before booking. The annual leave calculator works out the balance for any shift pattern, and the Scotland overtime rules guide covers the hours above 36 a week that sit outside the leave calculation altogether.
Carry-over to the next year
Up to one working week of basic contracted hours may be carried over to the following year, with the manager's agreement. For a full-time member on the 36-hour week that is 36 hours. For a part-timer on 0.6 whole-time equivalent, 21.6 hours a week, it is 21.6 hours. The carry-over is a ceiling, not an entitlement: the manager has to agree it, and local booking rules decide how and when the carried hours are taken.
Anything above the carry-over limit can be lost at year end, so the practical rule is to check the balance early and book ahead, not in March. The leave year ends on 31 March, and the extra public holiday in 2026/27, the 15 June 2026 World Cup day, is already borrowed from the following year's allocation, so the 2027/28 year starts one public holiday short. If you are approaching year end with untaken leave, speak to your line manager early: many boards allow only the one-week carry-over, and the rest does not roll forward. For the England carry-over position, see the annual leave guide.
Scotland compared with England and Wales
The days are the same in Scotland and England, and the hours are not. Both nations give 27, 29 or 33 days of leave plus 8 public holidays, but Scotland works a 36-hour week with a 7.2-hour day, while England works a 37.5-hour week with a 7.5-hour day. Wales gives one extra day at every tier, 28, 30 and 34 days, on the 37.5-hour week. The table below puts the three nations side by side in total hours, leave plus public holidays.
| Length of service | Scotland total | England total | Wales total |
|---|---|---|---|
| On appointment | 252.0 hours | 262.5 hours | 270.0 hours |
| After 5 years of reckonable service | 266.4 hours | 277.5 hours | 285.0 hours |
| After 10 years of reckonable service | 295.2 hours | 307.5 hours | 315.0 hours |
At entry, Scotland gives 252.0 hours against 262.5 hours in England, which is 10.5 hours fewer, and against 270.0 hours in Wales, which is 18.0 hours fewer. The gap grows with service, because the day-length difference of 0.3 hours multiplies by the number of days: after 5 years Scotland is 11.1 hours behind England and 18.6 hours behind Wales, and after 10 years it is 12.3 hours behind England and 19.8 hours behind Wales. Wales sits 7.5 hours ahead of England at every tier, which is exactly one extra day at 7.5 hours.
The comparison cuts both ways. Scotland gives fewer hours of leave, but it also asks for fewer hours of work: 36 hours a week against 37.5 in England and Wales. In working weeks the entitlement is identical, 7.0 weeks on appointment, 7.4 weeks after 5 years, and 8.2 weeks after 10 years, in all three nations. The honest way to read the table is that Scotland's leave is the same share of a shorter working year, not a worse deal, and the shorter week is the trade that sits behind it. For the pay comparison across the four nations, see the pay scales by country guide, and for the Welsh position in full, see the Wales pay guide.
What to check on your rota and payslip
Five checks catch most leave problems in Scotland before they become disputes. First, the leave year: it runs from 1 April to 31 March, and the balance on the rota should match that year, not the calendar year. Second, the hours: the balance should be in hours, and the full-time figures are 252.0, 266.4 and 295.2, so a balance shown in days alone is worth converting before you book a long shift off. Third, the public holiday rounding for part-timers: the entitlement rounds up to the nearest half day, so 4.8 days must show as 5.0, not 4.5, and 6.4 days must show as 6.5, not 6.0. Fourth, the local public holiday dates: the four national dates are fixed, but the other four are set by the board, so check the board's dates rather than assuming they match another board's. Fifth, the 2026/27 extra day: the 15 June 2026 World Cup public holiday is taken from the following year's allocation, so the 2027/28 year starts one day short.
If a figure looks wrong, raise it with your line manager and keep the rota for the period in question, with the hours you actually worked. The official calculator for Scotland is the NHS Scotland annual leave and public holiday calculator at workforce.nhs.scot, and it is the quickest way to check a part-time or mid-year figure without doing the arithmetic by hand. The figures on this page come from Circular PCS(AFC)2025/6, the NHS Scotland Annual Leave Policy for Agenda for Change Staff, and Section 13 of the Scottish Agenda for Change handbook.
Keep exploring Scotland pay and leave
Annual leave is one part of the Scottish pay picture. The Scotland pay guide gives the full 2026/27 scale and the 3.75% award, the Scotland overtime rules guide covers hours above 36 a week, and the Scotland unsocial hours guide covers the enhancements that apply on nights, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. For the England position, see the annual leave guide and the annual leave calculator. For part-time pay, see the part-time pay guide, and for the four-nation comparison, see the pay scales by country guide.
Frequently asked questions
How much annual leave do NHS staff in Scotland get?
Full-time NHS Scotland staff on Agenda for Change get 27 days of annual leave on appointment, 29 days after 5 years of reckonable service, and 33 days after 10 years, plus 8 public holidays at every tier. That is 35 days of time off in total on appointment, 37 days after 5 years, and 41 days after 10 years. The days are the same as in England. The difference is the hours, because Scotland works a 36-hour week, so a day of leave is 7.2 hours in Scotland against 7.5 hours in England.
How many hours of annual leave is that on the 36-hour week?
On the 36-hour week, a standard day is 7.2 hours. On appointment, 27 days of leave is 194.4 hours, plus 57.6 hours of public holidays, which is 252.0 hours in total, or 7.0 working weeks. After 5 years, 29 days is 208.8 hours of leave, 266.4 hours in total. After 10 years, 33 days is 237.6 hours of leave, 295.2 hours in total. One honest note: the official circular prints 194.5 hours for the first row, while the arithmetic, 27 times 7.2, gives 194.4, and the other two rows are exact. This page uses 194.4, and the note is on the page so the difference does not catch you out.
Which public holidays are fixed nationally in Scotland?
Four of the eight public holidays are agreed nationally for NHS Scotland: 25 December, 26 December, 1 January and 2 January. The other four are set locally by each health board, so the dates vary across Scotland, and your board confirms them. In some years more than 8 public holidays fall inside the leave year, because Easter can fall in March or April, and any excess days are taken from the following year's allocation. In 2026/27 there is an extra public holiday on 15 June 2026, for Scotland's opening game at the men's FIFA World Cup.
How is annual leave worked out for part-time staff in Scotland?
Part-time staff get the same entitlement pro rata to their contracted hours, and it is worked out in hours, not days. Annual leave is rounded to the nearest half hour, and public holiday entitlement is rounded up to the nearest half day. Take a nurse on 0.6 whole-time equivalent, which is 21.6 hours a week, on appointment: her leave is 116.5 hours, from 194.4 times 0.6, rounded to the nearest half hour, and her public holidays are 5.0 days, or 36.0 hours, because 4.8 days rounds up to the nearest half day. Her total is 152.5 hours. The full part-time table is on this page.
Can I carry annual leave over to the next year in Scotland?
Yes, with your manager's agreement, you can carry over up to one working week of your basic contracted hours. For a full-time member on the 36-hour week that is 36 hours. For a part-timer on 0.6 whole-time equivalent, 21.6 hours a week, it is 21.6 hours. The leave year runs from 1 April to 31 March, so check your balance early in the year and book ahead: anything above the carry-over limit can be lost at year end, and local booking rules vary by board.
What happens to my leave if I start or leave mid-year?
Your entitlement is worked out pro rata for the part of the leave year you work. Start on 1 October 2026, halfway through the leave year, on appointment, and you get half the year's entitlement: 97.2 hours of leave and 28.8 hours of public holidays, which is 126.0 hours in total. Previous NHS service counts towards the higher tiers, so service with any NHS employer, in any UK nation, moves you up the tiers. If you leave, untaken accrued leave is normally paid out, and the leaving guide works out the amount by band.
What if I have to work on a public holiday?
Staff required to work or be on call on a general public holiday get equivalent time off in lieu at plain time, in addition to the appropriate payment for the day. That is the rule in the Scottish Agenda for Change handbook, paragraph 13.4. The payment side, the enhancement for the hours actually worked, is covered in the Scotland unsocial hours guide, and the overtime position, including the 36-hour threshold, is in the Scotland overtime rules guide.
Is NHS annual leave the same in Scotland as in England?
The days are the same, the hours are not. Both nations give 27, 29 or 33 days of leave plus 8 public holidays, but Scotland works a 36-hour week with a 7.2-hour day, while England works a 37.5-hour week with a 7.5-hour day. At entry, Scotland gives 252.0 hours in total against 262.5 hours in England, which is 10.5 hours fewer. The gap grows with service: 11.1 hours fewer after 5 years, and 12.3 hours fewer after 10 years. Wales gives one extra day at every tier, 28, 30 and 34 days, so it sits ahead of both, at 270.0 hours at entry.