UK Bank Holidays 2012

England and Wales have eight bank holidays a year, among the fewest anywhere in Europe and the lowest count in the G20 group of leading economies, where the average is around twelve. Unlike in Scotland and Northern Ireland, neither England's national saint's day, St George's Day on 23 April, nor Wales' national saint's day, St David's Day on 1 March, is a bank holiday.

Scotland has nine bank holidays in a normal year. Six of the nine fall on the same day as in England and Wales: Easter Monday is not kept in Scotland at all, and the summer bank holiday is taken on the first Monday in August rather than the last. To those Scotland adds 2nd January and St Andrew's Day on 30 November, in honour of its national saint, which has been a bank holiday since 2007. Schools and businesses in Scotland are not automatically closed on a bank holiday.

Northern Ireland has ten bank holidays, the most of any part of the UK. It keeps all eight of the days kept in England and Wales, and adds St Patrick's Day on 17 March, in honour of Ireland's national saint, and the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne of 1690 on 12 July, also known as "The Twelfth" and Orangemen's Day.