The current regulations state that an employee should receive a minimum number of days paid holiday each year, calculated as 4 times the number of days worked per week. Thus, someone who works a 5 day week is entitled to 20 days paid holiday per year.
This entitlement
includes days which are effectively fixed by the employer (such as public holidays) when the workplace is closed.
The Labour party manifesto, at the last general election, contained a commitment to increase the holiday entitlement so that someone who works a 5 day week will get the equivalent of 20 days paid holiday
plus public holidays. The Government continue to maintain this commitment but the change hasn't come into effect yet.
When the change does come into effect, the proposal is that the minimum number of days paid holiday will be calculated as 5.6 times the number of days worked per week. (This will bring the entitlement, for someone who works 5 days per week, up to 28 days. This effectively adds the 8 public holidays onto the minimum holiday entitlement but, as now, there will be no automatic right to take a day off on a public holiday). However, the rule is subject to a maximum entitlement of 28 days, so the '5.6 times' rule doesn't apply to someone who works 6 days per week:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employe es/WorkingHoursAndTimeOff/DG_10029788
Chris