NICS annual leave and privilege days

A new entrant to the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) is allocated 25 days of annual leave a year, plus 12 public and privilege holidays. After 5 years of satisfactory service that rises to 30 days, and Senior Civil Service staff start on 30. These are full-time figures. The leave year runs from 1 February to 31 January.

What you get and when it goes up

The NICS recruitment site gives the entitlement as 25 days on entry and 30 days after 5 years, on top of the 12 public and privilege holidays. The NIPSA members’ guide for 2024 to 2026 lists the same figures for staff below the Senior Civil Service.

The Department of Finance policy (HR policy 3.07) states leave in weeks and ties it to grade and length of service. Grades fall into five bands. For bands A to D the allowance is 5 weeks on entry and 6 weeks after 5 years’ qualifying service, while band E gets 6 weeks from the start. Administrative assistants and administrative officers are in band A, and both executive officer grades are in band B. The policy lists every grade, so if you work in a specialist grade, ask HR which band your post sits in. A week of leave is the time you are conditioned to work in a normal week, so a day can be a different number of hours on a different pattern.

The pay side of these grades is in NICS pay scales.

What counts towards the five years

The policy calls this reckonable service. It includes full-time or part-time service in any NICS department, Home Civil Service employment if you resigned to join the NICS, paid sickness absence at full or half rate, paid special leave, and maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave. Service ended for misconduct or inefficiency does not count. Unpaid absences such as a career break can delay the date you qualify.

Part-time hours and other patterns

Leave is worked out in proportion to the hours you work. The Department of Finance’s alternative working patterns policy gives a worked example for someone on 30 days, which it states as 222 hours a year at 37 hours a week. If that person moves to 4 days a week (29.6 hours), the new allowance is 222 hours multiplied by 29.6 and divided by 37, which is 177.6 hours a year. If you do not work five standard days, your leave is counted in hours rather than days. Public and privilege holidays are reduced pro rata in the same way, so someone working two and a half days a week gets half the standard allowance.

If your hours change part-way through the leave year, the entitlement for the rest of that year is recalculated. The part-time holiday guide covers the general rules outside the NICS, and NICS flexitime and working patterns covers the patterns themselves.

Starting or leaving mid-year

If you join part-way through the leave year, your allowance for that year is what you earn between your start date and 31 January, rounded up to the nearest half day. Leavers get the same pro rata calculation for the months they worked. The policy asks that untaken leave be used before your last day. If that is not possible, you may be paid in lieu of the leave you did not take.

Carrying leave over

If you ask before 15 January, you can carry up to 9 days of annual leave into the next leave year. Managers are asked to encourage staff to use leave during the year so that carry-over stays under 9 days. You may also be allowed to anticipate up to 7 days of leave in the last month of the leave year.

Larger carry-over is possible in three situations. If management specifically stopped you taking your full allowance, you can carry over everything left. There is discretion for particular personal reasons, such as visiting relatives in distant countries. And if ill-health stopped you taking your leave, you can ask NICSHR Employee Relations to approve extra carry-over on top of the 9 days, limited to 25% or 30% of your allowance depending on when and how long you were off.

You need your manager’s approval before you take any annual leave.

What to check

• Your offer letter states your annual leave allowance.
• Which leave band your grade is in.
• Whether your leave is expressed in days or in hours.
• The date by which carry-over must be requested in your department.

For bank holidays more widely in Northern Ireland, see annual leave and bank holidays in Northern Ireland. How to apply for NICS jobs covers getting a post in the first place. This is general information, and your contract and your department’s HR team decide your actual entitlement.