A holiday can be approved correctly on the rota and still become difficult to explain when someone asks how their pay was calculated. The leave record sits with the manager, the calculation sits with payroll, and neither person can see the whole trail without asking the other.

That is a useful starting point for a government consultation now approaching its deadline. Hospitality businesses can describe where the process becomes unclear, while also checking whether their own records join up.

What is happening, and when?

The Department for Business and Trade opened its holiday-pay compliance and enforcement consultation on 30 June 2026. It asks how the Fair Work Agency should support compliance and enforce statutory holiday pay.

Responses close at 11.59pm on 22 September 2026. The consultation document sets out a planned 2027 start for holiday-pay enforcement and says the relevant powers apply in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has separate employment law. These dates and the territorial scope appear in the official consultation document, including its details on page 8.

This is an opportunity to respond to proposals, not an announcement that a new holiday-pay rate takes effect on 22 September.

What already applies?

The record-keeping requirement is separate. Since 6 April 2026, employers have had to keep annual-leave and holiday-pay records for at least six years from the date they are made. Employers can choose how to maintain those records. That is the current position described in GOV.UK's holiday-pay guidance.

Acas's record-keeping guidance, updated on 3 June 2026, identifies leave taken, leave carried over, holiday pay and payments for unused holiday when someone leaves. It also says the pay record should explain what is included. An existing payroll system or spreadsheet can be used, provided it contains the required information.

The practical question is therefore more demanding than “Can we see the remaining holiday balance?” Can the business retrieve the leave record and explain the associated payment?

What a hospitality business should check this week

These are suggested operational checks, not a substitute for a payroll compliance review.

  • Trace a recent holiday through the process. Ask the manager to find the approved leave and payroll to show the payment and its calculation. Check that both records concern the same dates and person.
  • Include different working patterns. Look at a salaried manager, a part-time employee and someone whose hours vary. A process that works for one does not prove the others have been handled correctly.
  • Check a recent leaver. Can the business explain the holiday balance and any payment for unused leave without relying on the departing manager's memory?
  • Test retrieval, not just storage. Establish who can retrieve historical records, including after a payroll-provider change. Keep personal information within authorised systems.
  • Agree who resolves a mismatch. If the rota shows leave but payroll does not, name the person responsible for investigating and recording the correction.

For a group, start with a small sample from more than one venue. The point is to find whether the handoff works consistently, not to ask every GM to rebuild payroll in Excel.

What remains undecided?

The consultation includes proposed enforcement design, a proposed six-year claim period and penalty settings. These should not be presented as a finished operating rulebook. Its document says the government will consider responses before publishing its response. A proposed enforcement claim period is also different from the existing six-year record-retention duty. Read the proposals and next steps.

If you respond, use a concrete process example: which information the manager holds, what payroll receives, where a correction becomes difficult, and what guidance would help. Describe the workflow without including identifiable employee records. The consultation page provides the response routes.

The practical point: 22 September is a consultation deadline. Use it to contribute evidence if you have something useful to add. Check existing holiday records now, regardless of whether you submit a response.

Topics: Holiday pay, payroll, annual leave, employment law and the Fair Work Agency.

General information only: This briefing is not legal or payroll advice. Check current official guidance and obtain advice on your circumstances before changing employment or payroll arrangements.