(1)Subject to subsection (2) below, the days specified in Schedule 1 to this Act shall be bank holidays in England and Wales, in Scotland and in Northern Ireland as indicated in the Schedule.
(2)If it appears to Her Majesty that, in the special circumstances of any year, it is inexpedient that a day specified in Schedule 1 to this Act should be a bank holiday, Her Majesty may by proclamation declare that that day shall not in that year be a bank holiday and appoint another day in place of it; and the day appointed by the proclamation shall, in that year, be a bank holiday under this Act instead of the day specified in Schedule 1.
(3)Her Majesty may from time to time by proclamation appoint a special day to be, either throughout the United Kingdom or in any place or locality in the United Kingdom, a bank holiday under this Act.
(4)No person shall be compellable to make any payment or to do any act on a bank holiday under this Act which he would not be compellable to make or do on Christmas Day or Good Friday; and where a person would, apart from this subsection, be compellable to make any payment or to do any act on a bank holiday under this Act, his obligation to make the payment or to do the act shall be deemed to be complied with if he makes or does it on the next following day on which he is compellable to make or do it.
(5)The powers conferred on Her Majesty by subsections (2) and (3) above may, as respects Northern Ireland, be exercised by the [F1Secretary of State].
(6)The provision made by this section for January 2nd or 3rd to be a bank holiday in Scotland shall have effect for the year 1973 and subsequent years.
Subordinate Legislation Made
P1S. 1(3): s. 1(3) power exercised byproclamation made 26. 6. 1991 appointing bank holidays.
Textual Amendments
F1Words substituted by virtue of Northern Ireland Constitutions Act 1973 (c. 36), Sch. 5 para. 4(1)
Modifications etc. (not altering text)
C1S. 1 excluded (S.) (16.12.2015) by The Scottish Parliament (Elections etc.) Order 2015 (S.S.I. 2015/425), art. 1(1), sch. 8 para. 3(4) (with art. 1(2))