Civil Service annual leave and privilege day

Each department sets its own Civil Service annual leave. The Civil Service management code requires every department to fix a number of days, any qualifying conditions and carry-over rules, but it gives no single figure for all grades. Its only leave table covers the Senior Civil Service. Anyone else will find their number in the vacancy pack and their contract.

The legal floor

By law, most workers get 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, which is 28 days for a five-day week, and part-timers get it pro rata. Employers can count bank holidays towards that total. Our holiday entitlement guide covers the statutory rules. The code does not state what departments give above the floor, so check yours.

What the management code requires of departments

Departments must keep records of holidays taken and consider the effect of time off on public business. Their rules must set out:

• qualifying conditions for leave
• the number of days, or the equivalent in hours
• how holiday not taken is carried forward or compensated

The code also requires departments to allow time off for members of the Reserve Forces, for union duties and safety representatives, and for certain public duties under the Employment Rights Act 1996.

The privilege day

Unless separate arrangements are authorised, departments must give staff a holiday for the monarch’s official birthday, on either the Friday before or the Tuesday after the Spring Bank Holiday. Civil servants call this the privilege day. The code’s wording still refers to the Queen’s Official Birthday, because the text published on GOV.UK is the November 2016 version.

The code gives the Senior Civil Service that one privilege day and no more. Other grades depend on the department, so if you are offered a role, ask whether any privilege days come on top of the leave figure you are quoted.

Senior Civil Service leave

For members of the Senior Civil Service, the code sets leave by continuous service:

Length of service	Annual leave
Up to 1 year	25 days
1 year, up to 2 years	26 days
2 years, up to 3 years	27 days
3 years, up to 4 years	28 days
4 years, up to 5 years	29 days
5 years or more	30 days

Senior civil servants are also entitled to all public holidays and the one privilege day, and must be offered time off in lieu if they work on them. Departments may give staff recruited from outside the Civil Service up to 30 days, but only as an exception backed by a business case. Staff who were in the Senior Civil Service before 1 July 2013 keep their existing contractual leave.

What to check on an offer

• the number of days for your grade, and whether it rises with service
• whether bank and public holidays are in the figure or on top
• the privilege day, and any extra privilege days
• how many days you can carry over
• whether your service in another department counts, which matters for moving between departments

Part-time staff get leave pro rata, usually converted into hours. The wider package is in Civil Service benefits, and the vacancy pack for the campaign you applied through, including any reserve list post, should state the allowance. For pay by grade, see Civil Service grades and pay.