Public and Bank Holiday Opening Requirements
A pharmacy must open to provide pharmaceutical services for its core contractual and supplementary hours each week. But, where the pharmacy would ordinarily be open on a day which is Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day or a bank holiday, the hours that it would ordinarily be open will, on those days, be treated as having been open for the purpose of counting the core contractual hours that week. This means a pharmacy that has 8 core contractual hours on Monday to Friday, will, during the week leading up to Easter, be open for 8 hours on each of Monday to Thursday making 32 hours in total, and may close on Good Friday, because the 8 hours that the pharmacy is ordinarily open on a Friday are counted towards the 40 hours requirement, irrespective of whether the pharmacy is open. These are straightforward provisions, but the way that bank holidays are declared does cause some anomalies.
In England, the days that a pharmacy will not normally be required to open are:
- New Year’s Day
- Good Friday
- Easter Sunday
- Easter Monday
- Early May Bank Holiday
- Spring Bank Holiday
- Summer Bank Holiday
- Christmas Day
- Boxing Day
On these days, the core contractual hours at the times at which it would have ordinarily been open are counted towards the core contractual requirement without the pharmacy having to open on those days and at those times.
The NHS Regulations provide that Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Christmas day are always treated in this way.
But, for the other days, the status of the day depends on whether it has been formally declared as a bank holiday – or whether a substitute day has been introduced. Up to date information can be found on the Government’s business website.
Because these bank holidays may vary from year to year, pharmacies need to plan ahead and identify precisely which day is declared as the bank holiday. Where, for example New Years Day and Boxing Day fall at the weekend there may be substitute days declared, meaning that the pharmacy might have to open on the 26 December / 1 January where these fall on a weekend.
Important Information regarding Boxing Day 2026
Community Pharmacy England has issued guidance outlining community pharmacy opening hour requirements for bank holidays in 2026 and 2027.
Please note an important point for December 2026:
Boxing Day falls on Saturday 26 December 2026. As this is not the official bank holiday (the substitute bank holiday will be Monday 28 December), Saturday 26 December is treated as a normal working day for contractual purposes.
This means that pharmacies must open for their usual Saturday core and supplementary hours on 26 December, unless an approved change to hours has been agreed. Contractors are encouraged to review this early if they anticipate any issues with opening.
Please also note that although pharmacies do not automatically have to open on the substitute bank holiday (Monday 28 December), the ICB may still direct pharmacies to open as part of local bank holiday directed rota arrangements to ensure adequate service provision.
Action required:
- Check your Saturday opening hours for 26 December 2026 – pharmacies must open as normal for any core and supplementary hours.
- If you wish to reduce supplementary hours, you must notify the ICB at least 5 weeks in advance.
- If you wish to change core hours, a formal application to the ICB is required and changes can only be made once approved.
- Ensure your NHS website profile and DoS profile are updated with correct bank holiday opening hours and verified within the required quarterly timescales.
- Be aware that pharmacies may still be directed to open on the substitute Boxing Day bank holiday (Monday 28 December) as part of local bank holiday directed rota arrangements.
Further information, including other bank holidays in 2026 and 2027, is included in this briefing https://cpe.org.uk/briefings/briefing-004-26-pharmacy-bank-holiday-opening-hours-in-the-remainder-of-2026-and-in-2027/