Fairmead Accountancy Ltd

What holiday records a care provider must keep under regulation 16B, from 6 April 2026

By Patrick Roper ACA, ICAEW chartered accountant. Last reviewed 1 November 2026. Figures next checked by 31 January 2027.

From 6 April 2026, regulation 16B of the Working Time Regulations 1998 requires every employer to keep holiday records adequate to show it has complied with the rules, and to keep them for six years. Acas lists what must be recorded: holiday taken, holiday carried over, holiday pay and what it included, and any payment in lieu. The format is the employer's choice. Acas states that an employer that cannot prove it has the records could be committing a criminal offence, with the Fair Work Agency to be given enforcement rights.

What the regulation requires

The government's June 2026 consultation document describes the duty in one sentence: since April 2026 employers have been required to keep holiday-pay records for six years, under regulation 16B of the Working Time Regulations 1998, that are adequate to show whether they have complied with the requirements, and it is up to the employer how they keep them. The six years is the same period the government proposes the agency should be able to look back over, and the consultation says the two are aligned on purpose.

Acas turns "adequate to show" into a list. Employers must record:

  • holiday taken;
  • holiday carried over from previous years;
  • holiday pay, with details of what it included, for example bonuses or commission; and
  • any payment in lieu of holiday, such as pay for unused holiday when someone leaves.

Records must be kept for at least six years from the date they were made, and in line with UK GDPR.

The list for a care provider

The four Acas headings are the legal minimum. To show compliance for a workforce of hourly, bank and part-year staff, the records also have to carry the inputs the calculation depends on. A practical set, per worker:

RecordWhy it is needed
Contract type: salaried, fixed hours, irregular hours, part-year, bankDecides whether the 12.07% accrual and rolled-up pay are available at all
Leave year start dateThe 2024 rules apply to leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024
Hours worked per pay periodThe 12.07% accrual is a percentage of hours worked in the period
Pay per period split into basic, overtime, enhancements, sleep-in payments, commissionNormal pay for holiday purposes includes regular overtime and task-linked payments
Holiday taken, by date and hoursRequired by Acas; the base for the carried-over figure
Holiday pay paid, by period, with the basis used (52-week average or rolled-up) and what it includedRequired by Acas; the line an inspector compares to the calculation
Rolled-up uplift shown as a separate payslip line, where usedOne of the three conditions for rolled-up pay
Periods of sickness and statutory leaveHoliday pay must continue through them for rolled-up workers, at the 52-week average
Holiday carried over, with the reasonRequired by Acas; carry-over rules differ for sickness and family leave
Payments in lieu on leavingRequired by Acas

What happens without the records

Acas says that if an employer cannot prove it has holiday records, it could be a criminal offence, that the Fair Work Agency will be given enforcement rights, and that the maximum penalty is likely to be unlimited fines. Other action might include demands for underpaid holiday pay and additional financial penalties. The underpayment penalties themselves are still proposals; the record-keeping duty is in force now.

The practical risk is simpler than the legal one. Without hours, pay components and leave dates by period, nobody can show that holiday pay was right, and an inspector who cannot see a calculation will make their own.

Checking the records before anyone else does

The £295 snapshot starts from whatever exports the payroll system produces and says which of the items above are missing, as well as recomputing a sample of staff. The £2,950 audit produces the records pack an inspector would ask for, worker by worker. Both are calculations and records exercises by a chartered accountant, not legal advice.

Common questions

Do we need a new system?

No. Acas says records can be kept in any format the employer thinks reasonable, a spreadsheet or an online system, and that an existing payroll system may already hold most of it. The duty is that the information required by law is all there, so the job is a gap check against the list, not a purchase.

Does the six years run from April 2026 or from the date of each record?

From the date each record was made, and the duty itself starts on 6 April 2026. Nothing requires an employer to reconstruct records for years before that, though older payroll data is what a tribunal or an agency would ask for in an underpayment case.

Why does this matter more in care?

The agency's delivery plan names social care, with construction, as a high-risk sector where it will deepen its understanding. Care providers also run the staffing patterns the rules single out: hourly and bank staff with variable hours, sleep-ins, regular overtime and enhancements, which is where holiday pay is most often paid at basic rate.

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