Holiday request form

What's in the template

How to use the form

1. Fill in the leave year and entitlement first, from the contract or written statement. The leave year might run January to December or from each person's start date; putting it on the form means everyone counts from the same day.
2. The employee lists the dates and counts working days only, not weekends or days they don't normally work.
3. Work out the balance before and after. If bank holidays come out of the entitlement, deduct the ones already passed or coming up, or the balance will look bigger than it is.
4. Arrange cover before submitting, so the manager is approving a plan rather than a gap.
5. The manager checks the team calendar for clashes and any agreed minimum cover, and answers promptly. If the answer is no, give the reason and suggest other dates.
6. Update the leave record and calendar the same day, and file the form with the employee's records.

What the law says (UK)

• Entitlement: almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year. For someone working five days a week that's 28 days, and statutory paid holiday is capped at 28 days, so a six-day week still gets 28. Part-time workers get 5.6 weeks pro rata: three days a week gives at least 16.8 days.
• Bank holidays don't have to be given as paid leave, and an employer can count them as part of the 5.6 weeks.
• Notice: unless the contract says otherwise, a worker should give notice of at least twice the length of the leave, plus 1 day: 3 days' notice for 1 day off. An employer can refuse or cancel leave with notice as long as the leave requested, plus 1 day: 11 days for a 10-day request. Employers can refuse particular dates and restrict busy periods, but can't stop workers taking their leave altogether.
• Carrying over: the contract sets how many days can be carried over, and GOV.UK says that where a worker gets 28 days, the maximum is 8. Workers who couldn't take leave because of sickness, or weren't given a reasonable chance to take it, can carry over more.
• Records: from 6 April 2026, employers must keep detailed records of annual leave and holiday pay for at least 6 years.
• Sickness: holiday keeps building up while someone is off sick, they can ask to take holiday during sick leave, and an employer can't force a sick worker to take leave.

Use this as a guide, not as legal advice; GOV.UK has the full rules, including those for irregular-hours and part-year workers.

Example: a summer request

A request at a fictional 30-person accountancy practice. The employee, Sam Ashworth, is fictional.

Sam asked in March, far more than the minimum notice, and a colleague covers payroll clients from handover notes in the shared folder. It was approved within two days. A second request, for the last week of January, was declined: the practice's contracts restrict leave in its busiest fortnight, and the manager offered the first week of February instead.

Common mistakes

• Counting calendar days instead of working days, which overcharges part-time staff.
• Never settling whether bank holidays come out of the entitlement, so balances drift and nobody trusts them.
• First come, first served, then cancelling approved leave when cover falls through. Cancelling needs notice too.
• Verbal approvals with nothing written down, which won't meet the record-keeping duty.
• Letting people lose leave they never had a fair chance to take. GOV.UK says workers can carry over all of it if they weren't given a reasonable opportunity or weren't told they would lose it.