April 2026 Holiday Record-Keeping Duty

Before April 2026, there was no general statutory duty on UK employers to keep specific holiday records or to disclose them to workers. The WTR 1998 required employers to keep adequate records to demonstrate compliance with the working time limits (the 48-hour weekly cap, the 11-hour daily rest), but holiday-specific records were a payroll convention rather than a legal duty.

This produced an evidential mismatch in tribunal claims. A worker who believed their holiday pay was wrong needed to prove the underpayment. The employer's payroll records were the natural evidence, but the worker had no statutory right to see them. Subject Access Requests under data protection law could provide some information, but the response window was 30 days and the records were often partial.

The Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2023 introduced the formal duty effective 6 April 2026. The two-year run-up gave employers time to put proper systems in place; payroll software vendors have updated their products to support the new record set and the disclosure mechanism. The duty mirrors similar transparency requirements in pension scheme administration and is broadly accepted in the payroll industry.

The detailed list of records is set out in the WTR 1998 as amended. For each worker, the employer must maintain:

• The leave year start and end dates as set out in the contract or the WTR default.
• The worker's full statutory entitlement (5.6 weeks pro-rated for hours) and any contractual additions above the statutory floor.
• The running balance of accrued leave at each pay reference period (typically monthly for salaried workers, weekly or fortnightly for hourly workers).
• All leave taken during the leave year, with dates, number of days or hours, and the pay rate applied.
• All rolled-up holiday pay paid (for irregular-hours workers on the 12.07% method), with the date, amount, and hours of work to which it relates.
• The calculation method used for accrual: 12.07% per hour for irregular-hours workers, the 52-week reference period for variable-pay workers, or fixed daily/weekly rate for standard-hours workers.
• Any carry-over of unused leave from previous years, with the legal basis (sickness, family leave, employer failure to encourage).

The records must be maintained for each worker individually, not in aggregate, and must be capable of producing a worker-specific report on request. Most modern payroll software already collects this information; the new duty formalises the retention and disclosure rules around it.

A worker can request their holiday records in writing at any time. The request can be made by email or letter; no specific form is required. The employer must provide the requested records within 14 working days. The records must be in a format the worker can easily read (typically PDF or printed paper); raw database exports are not enough.

The worker does not need to give a reason for the request. The right is unconditional; it is part of the worker's broader right to transparency on pay matters. Requests can be made multiple times in a leave year; an employer cannot refuse a second request on grounds that one has already been made. The only constraint is that records older than 6 years from the relevant leave year end may not be available.

Where the worker has a specific concern (a suspected underpayment, a dispute about carry-over), the request can be focused on that issue. A request for "all holiday records from 2024 onwards" is reasonable. A request for "the 12.07% accrual calculations for July-September 2025" is also reasonable and may be quicker to respond to. The employer should provide what is asked for, not what they prefer to provide. ACAS guidance on checking holiday entitlement covers the practical process.

Failure to keep adequate records is an offence under the WTR 1998. The HSE has inspection and enforcement powers; in serious cases the HSE can prosecute. Penalties at magistrates' court are up to £5,000 per offence; at Crown Court the fine is unlimited. Each worker for whom records are inadequate is a separate offence, so the potential total for a large employer can be substantial.

In Employment Tribunal claims for underpaid holiday pay, the absence of employer records has an evidential effect. The tribunal can infer that the worker's calculation is correct because the employer cannot disprove it. This is a meaningful shift from the pre-2026 position, where the worker bore the burden of proof and often had no access to the underlying records.

The 14-day disclosure window also has enforcement teeth. Failure to provide records within 14 days is itself an offence under the WTR 1998. The Employment Tribunal can also draw an adverse inference if the records are not provided when requested. For employers used to ignoring or stalling holiday queries, the new duty is a real change of dynamic.

The biggest practical change is the audit capability. A worker who suspects their holiday pay is wrong can now systematically verify it. Request the records, work through the calculation, identify any discrepancy, raise it with HR. If the response is unsatisfactory, the records form the basis of an ACAS early conciliation and potentially an Employment Tribunal claim.

For workers on rolled-up holiday pay, the records should show the 12.07% line item on every payslip plus a running total of hours worked and accrued. A mismatch between hours worked × 12.07% × hourly rate and the total rolled-up pay shown is recoverable. For workers on the 52-week reference period, the records should show the calculation of the average weekly pay for each leave week. Errors in either calculation are common and now systematically detectable.

For workers on the standard 5.6-week entitlement with fixed hours, the records should show the entitlement, leave taken, and balance. Discrepancies are less common but do appear, particularly around carry-over, sickness, family leave, and termination calculations. The new duty makes year-end reconciliation a worker-driven exercise rather than purely an employer-driven one.

Payroll software vendors (Sage, Xero, BrightHR, ADP, Workday, PeopleSoft) updated their products in 2024-25 to support the new record set and the 14-day disclosure mechanism. Most small employers using off-the-shelf software will find the duty is largely handled by the system; HR or payroll just needs to know how to export the worker-specific report.

For employers using bespoke or legacy systems, the upgrade burden may be larger. The required record set includes detail that not all payroll systems traditionally captured (the running accrual balance at each pay reference period, the calculation method per worker, the carry-over breakdown by year). Employers should audit their current systems against the WTR 1998 amended record set and update where needed.

HR teams should also expect more worker queries about holiday calculations. The 14-day window is short; HR processes should be set up to handle the request quickly, ideally by routing to a payroll-export function that can be run within a day. Stalling or refusing requests carries both legal risk (enforcement by HSE, adverse inference in tribunal) and reputational risk (workers and trade unions will document non-compliance).