Bank holiday
A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom. These are set by the UK parliament in statute law. The term bank holiday is commonly used interchangeably with other public holidays such as Good Friday and Christmas Day, which are held by convention. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or common law.[1][2]
There are eight holidays a year in England and Wales, nine in Scotland and ten in Northern Ireland. Additional days have been allocated for special events, such as royal weddings and jubilees. The eight main bank holidays are: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, the early May bank holiday, the Spring bank holiday, the Summer bank holiday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. In Scotland, Easter Monday is not a bank holiday, but 2nd January and St Andrew's Day are. In Northern Ireland, St Patrick's Day and Orangemen's Day are also bank holidays.
Bank holidays are days on which most businesses and non-essential services are closed, although an increasing number of retail businesses (especially the larger ones) do open on some of the public holidays. There are restrictions on trading on Sundays and Christmas Day in England and Wales and on New Year's Day and Christmas Day in Scotland. There is no automatic right to time off on these days,[3] but banks close and the majority of the working population is granted time off work or extra pay for working on these days, depending on their contract.
Terminology
The two terms "bank holiday" and "public holiday" are often used interchangeably, although strictly and legally there is a difference. On the term "bank holiday", a briefing paper by the British parliament in 2015 said:[4]
The term "bank" holiday is used interchangeably with "public" holiday. For all practical purposes there is no difference. There is, however, an academic difference between bank holidays derived from statute and public holidays at common law (such as Christmas Day in England and Wales).
The only date which would seem to qualify nationally as one and not the other is Easter Sunday, which it would be strange to treat as an ordinary day for government business and on which many shops reduce their hours further than their normal Sunday routine. However, in certain areas or streets – usually where one religion accounts for most of the population or has a resonance – certain other dates are commonly informally avoided for business opening and treated as local holidays.
History
The first official bank holidays were the four days named in the Bank Holidays Act 1871. Until 1834, the Bank of England observed about 33 saints' days and religious festivals as holidays, but in that year this was reduced to four: 1 May (May Day), 1 November (All Saints' Day), Good Friday and Christmas Day. In 1871, the first legislation relating to bank holidays was passed when Liberal politician and banker Sir John Lubbock introduced the Bank Holidays Act 1871, which specified the days in the table below.[5] Under the Act, no person was compelled to make any payment or to do any act upon a bank holiday which he would not be compelled to do or make on Christmas Day or Good Friday, and the making of a payment or the doing of an act on the following day was equivalent to doing it on the holiday.[6] People were so grateful that some called the first bank holidays St Lubbock's Days for a while.[7] Scotland was treated separately because of its separate traditions: for example, New Year is a more important holiday there
The Act did not include Good Friday and Christmas Day as bank holidays in England, Wales, or Ireland because they were already recognised as common law holidays: they had been customary holidays since time immemorial.[5]
In 1903, the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act added 17 March, Saint Patrick's Day, as a bank holiday for Ireland only.[8] New Year's Day did not become a bank holiday in England until 1 January 1974. Boxing Day did not become a bank holiday in Scotland until 1974.
Commencing in 1965, experimentally, the August bank holiday weekend was observed at the end of August "to give a lead in extending British holidays over a longer summer period".[9] Each year's date was announced in Parliament on an ad hoc basis, to the despair of the calendar and diary publishing trade.[10] The rule seems to have been to select the weekend of the last Saturday in August, so that in 1968[11] and 1969[12] Bank Holiday Monday actually fell in September.
During the sterling crisis of 1968, Prime Minister Harold Wilson convened a meeting of the privy council in the early hours of 14 March to declare 15 March a non-statutory bank holiday. This allowed the UK government to close the London gold market to stem the losses being suffered by the British pound.[13] It was this meeting that triggered the resignation of Foreign Secretary George Brown.
A century after the 1871 Act, the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, which currently regulates bank holidays in the UK, was passed.[14] The majority of the current bank holidays were specified in the 1971 Act: however New Year's Day and May Day were not introduced throughout the whole of the UK until 1974 and 1978 respectively.[15] The date of the August bank holiday was changed from the first Monday in August to the last Monday in August, and the Whitsun bank holiday (Whit Monday) was replaced by the Late Spring Bank Holiday, fixed as the last Monday in May.[16] In 1978 the first Monday in May in the rest of the UK, and the final Monday of May in Scotland, were designated as bank holidays.[17]
In January 2007, the St Andrew's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act 2007 was given royal assent, making 30 November (or the nearest Monday if a weekend) a bank holiday in Scotland.[18]
In the present day, bank holidays have seen retailers offer large discounts to entice people to shop, particularly for large domestic purchases such as electrical goods and furniture.[citation needed] In particular, Argos, Currys and Amazon typically have large discounts and high revenues on these days.[citation needed]
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other Commonwealth countries. UK Legislation does not use the term Boxing Day, but it is common to refer to the Bank Holiday that falls on Boxing Day as the Boxing Day Bank Holiday. Confusion / dispute arises over whether Boxing Day is (i) always 26 December, (ii) always 26 December unless it is a Sunday in which case Boxing Day is the next Day, or (iii) The day on which the Bank Holiday in lieu of it falls if 26 December is a Saturday or a Sunday. There are historical assertions in the works of Samuel Pepys and the OED that Boxing Day does not fall on a Sunday but is transferred to the next day and this accords with many people's memories / customs.
When 26 December is a Sunday the legislation specifically provides a Bank Holiday on Monday 27 December (as it does if 25 December is a Sunday). The legislation does not specifically provide for Bank Holidays in lieu of 25 or 26 December when they fall on a Saturday, but these will be made by Royal Proclamation.
Regional variations
In mainland Britain, while New Year's Day and Christmas Day are national holidays, other bank holidays are not necessarily public holidays, since the Scots instead observe traditional local custom and practice for their public holidays.
In Northern Ireland, once again, bank holidays other than New Year's Day and Christmas Day are not necessarily public holidays.
Good Friday and Christmas Day are common law holidays, except in Scotland, where they are bank holidays.[19][20][21][22]
Outside Scotland, if Christmas Day is a Sunday there is an additional statutory holiday on 27 December. By Royal Proclamation, if 25 December is a Saturday there is a substitute holiday on 28 December. If 26 December is a Sunday there is again a statutory holiday on 27 December, and if 26 December is a Saturday there is a substitute holiday by Royal Proclamation on 28 December. Effectively what happens is that if a holiday falls at the weekend a substitute day is given in lieu.
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