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Bank Holidays are public holidays in the United Kingdom and also in the Republic of Ireland. Although there is no legal right to time off on these days, the majority of the population not employed in essential services (e.g. utilities, fire, ambulance, police, health-care workers) receive them as holidays; those employed in essential services usually receive extra pay for working on these days. Bank Holidays are so called because they are days upon which banks are shut and therefore (traditionally) no other businesses could operate. Legislation allows certain payments to be deferred to the next working day.

Prior to 1834, the Bank of England observed about thirty-three saints' days and religious festivals as holidays, but in 1834, this was reduced to just four: 1 May, 1 November, Good Friday, and Christmas Day.

In 1871, the first legislation relating to Bank Holidays was passed when Sir John Lubbock introduced the Bank Holidays Act 1871. Sir John was an enthusiastic supporter of cricket and was firmly of the belief that bank employees should have the opportunity to participate in and attend matches when they were scheduled. Included in the dates of Bank Holidays are therefore dates when cricket games were traditionally played between the villages in the region where Sir John was raised. Scotland was treated separately because of its separate traditions; for example, New Year or Hogmanay is a more important holiday there.

The act does not specify Good Friday and Christmas Day as Bank Holidays in England, Wales and Ireland because they were already recognised there as common law holidays, and because of common observance, they became customary holidays since before records began.

In 1903, the Bank Holidays (Ireland) Act added 17 March, Saint Patrick's Day, as a Bank Holiday for Ireland only.

Exactly a century after the 1871 Act, the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, which currently regulates Bank Holidays in the UK, was passed. The table below details the bank holidays specified in the 1971 Act; also listed are New Year's Day and May Day, introduced since 1971. These are deemed Bank Holidays by the legal device of a royal proclamation every year. In January 2007, the St Andrew's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland) Act was given royal assent, making 30 November (or the nearest Monday if a weekend) a Bank Holiday in Scotland.

Royal proclamation is also used to shift Bank Holidays that would otherwise fall on a weekend. In this way, public holidays are not 'lost' in years when they coincide with weekends. These deferred Bank Holiday days are termed a 'Bank Holiday in lieu' of the typical anniversary date. In the legislation they are known as 'substitute days'. The movement of the St Andrew's Day Scottish holiday to the nearest Monday when 30 November is a weekend day is statutory and does not require a proclamation.

A number of differences apply to Scotland rather than the rest of the UK. For example, Easter Monday is not a bank holiday. Also, although they share the same name, the Summer Bank Holiday falls on the first Monday of August in Scotland as opposed to the last elsewhere in the UK.

Bank Holidays do not, however, assume the same importance in Scotland as they do elsewhere. Whereas they have effectively become public holidays elsewhere in the UK, in Scotland there remains a tradition of public holidays based on local tradition and determined by local authorities. In 1996, Scottish banks made the business decision to harmonise their own holidays with the rest of the UK, therefore Bank Holidays in Scotland are neither public holidays nor the days on which banks are closed.

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