Taking annual leave
Annual leave should be taken with the agreement of your employer. There is no legal right to choose when to take your annual leave; your employer will need to balance your right to take leave against the needs of the service and to maintain appropriate staffing levels.
You should check any local policies in place as normally there is a clear process you must follow when booking annual leave. Generally, you are required to give notice to the employer of when you wish to take leave. In absence of any specific local policy, the notice period should be at least twice the period of the leave to be taken so if you wish to take two weeks off, you should give four weeks’ notice.
Your employer can refuse your request for annual leave, but they must notify you of this within a period equivalent to the period of leave. Your employer should also act reasonably when dealing with annual leave requests; for example, they should operate a fair process for dealing with multiple requests for the same day off.
Your employer can also require you to take all or any of the leave to which you are entitled at specified times, provided you are given prior notice. Check your contract for further information.