The Government has confirmed there will be eight more bank holidays to look forward to this year. However, the number of such days will vary depending on where you live.
In a social media post, the Government published what it described as the full list of remaining bank holidays for 2025. The next will be the early May bank holiday on Monday May 5, which will apply to the whole of the UK. Spring bank holiday falls on Monday, May 26, and also applies to the UK. The next bank holiday after that will only apply to Northern Ireland. It falls on July 14 to mark the Battle of the Boyne. Recognised as the largest engagement to take place on Irish soil, the indecisive battle was fought between forces of the deposed King James II and King William III. Scotland will see the next bank holiday on August 4 while England, Wales and Northern Ireland’s summer bank holiday will be on August 25.
The next bank holiday will be on May 5 (Image: Getty)
The two remaining bank holidays are December 1 in Scotland to mark St Andrew’s Day followed by December 25, Christmas Day, which is a bank holiday for the whole of the UK.
There had been calls for an extra bank holiday on May 8 for the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, which marks the day Britain and its allies accepted Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender in the Second World War.
Despite the calls, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer confirmed in November that there were no plans for an extra bank holiday.
They said the May Day bank holiday would be used for commemorative events instead and that the Government was committed to marking the anniversary.
The name bank holiday comes from days when banks were allowed to close. Other business followed suit, leading to bank holidays to be formally recognised in law. Bank holidays were formally recognised in an Act of Parliament in 1871.
Saint Patrick’s Day is a bank holiday in Northern Irleand (Image: Getty)
Britain has one of the lowest number of public holidays in the world. Spain, on the other hand, has the highest in Europe with up to 14 per year.
Most of Spain’s public holidays are because of Catholicism, such as saints’ days. It’s similar in Colombia, which has 18 public holidays per year, again linked to the Catholic calendar.
Patron saints’ day in the UK are marked in different ways between the four nations, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The feast days for Northern Ireland and Scotland’s patron saints – Saint Patrick and Saint Andrew respectively – are bank holidays.
But neither feast days of England’s Saint George nor Wales’s Saint David are bank holidays, though of course this doesn’t mean people can’t celebrate them.
