A
bank holiday is a public
holiday in both the United Kingdom
and Ireland
. There is some automatic right to time off
on these days, although the majority of the population not employed
in essential services (e.g.
utilities,
fire,
ambulance,
police,
health-care workers,
London Underground) receive them as
holidays; those employed in essential services usually receive
extra pay for working on these days. Bank holidays are often
assumed to be so called because they are days upon which banks are
shut, but this is not in fact the case. Some of the assumed bank
holidays are days on which the banks are shut but are not, in fact,
a bank holiday (e.g. Good Friday and Christmas Day). Legislation
does not allow certain payments to be deferred to the working
day.
History of bank holidays
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 which specified the days in the table set out
below. 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. The English
people were so thankful that they called the first Bank Holidays
'St. Lubbock's Days' for awhile.
Scotland
was treated
separately because of its separate traditions; for example, New
Year 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 as common law holidays, and because of
common observance, they became customary holidays since before
records began.
In 1903, the
Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act added
17 March,
Saint
Patrick's Day, as a bank holiday for Ireland only.
From 1972 the date of the August bank holiday was changed to the
end of the month. Curiously, there were a few years (eg 1868) when
this holiday fell in September, but this no longer occurs -
presumably reflecting a change in the way of defining the relevant
day. The Whitsun bank holiday (Whit Monday) was replaced by the
Late Spring Bank Holiday - fixed as the last Monday in May - in
1971.
Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971
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 Act 2007 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.
- For one year only, 1995, this holiday was moved to the
second Monday in May – i.e., from 1
May to 8 May – to commemorate the 50th
anniversary of VE Day.
- For one year only, 2002, this holiday was moved to 4 June. This caused it to follow an extra bank
holiday on 3 June, making a four-day weekend
to celebrate the Golden
Jubilee of Elizabeth II.
Scotland
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 (for example, the
Glasgow Fair and the
Dundee Fortnight). 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.
Prospective new bank holidays
It has been noted that the number of holidays in the UK is
relatively small compared to the number in many other
European countries. However, direct comparison is
inaccurate since the 'substitute day' scheme of deferment does not
apply in most European countries, where holidays that coincide with
a weekend (29% of fixed-date holidays) are 'lost'. In fact, the
average number of non-weekend holidays in such countries, is only
marginally higher (and in some cases lower) than the UK.
There have been calls for an increase in the number of bank
holidays.
Among the most notably absent dates from the
existing list are the feast days of patron
saints; April 23 (St George's Day) in England and March 1 (St David's
Day) in Wales are not
currently recognised. March 17 (St Patrick's Day) is a public holiday in
Northern
Ireland
and, from 2008, November
30 (St Andrew's Day) is a bank
holiday in Scotland.
St Piran's Day (patron saint of
Cornwall) on the
5 March is already given as
an unofficial day off to many government and other workers in the
county, and there are renewed calls for the government to recognise
this as an official bank holiday in the region.
The Government as of 2008 has stated "we have no plans to change
the current pattern of Bank Holidays, but we are nevertheless
considering all these suggestions carefully". In response to a
parliamentary question about St George's Day,
Gordon Brown stated that it is "for public
debate" whether it should become a holiday. If it did, it would be
eight days before the May holiday in some years, and very close to
Easter in others.
Republic of Ireland
In the
Republic of
Ireland, the term "public holiday" is used officially,
though "bank holiday" is used colloquially.
Good Friday is not a public holiday, though banks and public
institutions are closed. The Summer Bank Holiday is also the first
Monday in August rather than the last. A June Bank Holiday takes
the place of the Spring Bank Holiday. Easter Monday and
St Patrick's Day both qualify as National
Days in the Republic.
The most recent public holiday to be added was
Labour Day (often called
May
Day). This holiday is taken as the first Monday in May, and was
introduced in 1994. Recently, senior politicians (including
Ruairi Quinn TD) have been considering the addition of
one or two extra public holidays to bring Ireland in line with the
rest of Europe.
United States
In the
United
States
, banks are generally closed on all federal holidays, but the term bank
holiday refers specifically to emergency bank closures
mandated by executive
order or act of Congress
to remedy financial crises, for example the Emergency Banking Act of
1933.
See also
References
- Olmert, Michael (1996). Milton's Teeth and Ovid's Umbrella:
Curiouser & Curiouser Adventures in History, p.170. Simon
& Schuster, New York. ISBN 0684801647.
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7925480.stm
-
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5850736.ece
- supportstgeorge - epetition response
-
http://tucnak.fsv.cuni.cz/~calda/Documents/1930s/EmergBank_1933.html
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