Employment Rights Act 2025: schools’ duty to keep holiday records

With effect from 6 April 2026, the Employment Rights Act 2025 introduced a new duty on all employers to keep adequate records demonstrating compliance with holiday entitlement obligations under the Working Time Regulations (WTR).

While it has always been best practice to keep records of this nature, the Act has now made this a legal requirement. The new obligation was implemented with very little notice, through a late commencement order published towards the end of March 2026, during a period when many schools were closed for the Easter break.

The Act requires employers to keep sufficient records to show that they have complied with the WTR requirements to:

• Provide the correct amount of annual leave
• Make the correct payments for leave taken
• Make payments for unused statutory leave on termination, including any leave lawfully carried forward.

The Act says that records can be “kept in such a manner and format as the employer reasonably thinks fit”.

While many schools already keep annual leave records for year-round staff who have statutory and contractual holiday entitlements that must be booked in advance, term-time-only staff are often ‘deemed’ to have taken their leave during school holiday periods. Historically, records may not have been kept for these staff.

The changes introduced by the Act mean that it’s now important for schools to keep detailed holiday records for all staff going forward.

Recommended steps

Schools should ensure that the following records are maintained for each employee from 6 April 2026:

1. Annual leave entitlement: keep a clear record of the worker’s entitlement for the leave year, distinguishing between statutory entitlement and any additional contractual holiday
2. Designated leave dates: where annual leave is booked, the dates should be recorded. Where leave is deemed to be taken during school closure periods for term-time-only staff, schools should identify at the start of the leave year which days will count against the employee’s statutory and, where applicable, contractual entitlement. This doesn’t need to be onerous – a simple record confirming, for example, that the first 5.6 weeks of school closure periods constitute annual leave should suffice, provided this is documented and attributed to each individual
3. Confirmation that leave was taken: schools should record that annual leave was taken on the booked or designated school closure dates. For most term-time-only staff, this will simply confirm that the employee wasn’t working during the relevant closure periods
4. Carry-over: any leave carried over into a new holiday year should be recorded, together with the reason for the carry-over
5. Pro rata calculations: for term-time-only workers on pro rata entitlements, the calculation methodology and payment details should be documented.

All records must be retained for a minimum of six years.

Consequences of non-compliance

Failure to keep adequate records is now a criminal offence, punishable by potentially unlimited fines.

In addition, a new government agency, the Fair Work Agency, will, following a transitional period, have powers to take enforcement action against employers that don’t comply with their holiday and holiday pay duties.

While the exact date on which its enforcement powers will commence hasn’t yet been confirmed, schools should begin keeping accurate records now, covering the period from 6 April 2026, to ensure compliance.

What should you do now?

All schools should put record-keeping arrangements in place as soon as possible, if they haven’t done so already. There’s no prescribed format – a straightforward spreadsheet or similar document will suffice, provided it:

• Covers the points outlined above
• Is attributed to each individual employee
• Covers the period from 6 April 2026
• Is retained for the requisite six-year period.