Carrying Over Annual Leave, The Actual Rule
Regulation 33(3) of Annex O gives your chief officer a discretion to carry unused days forward, or let you borrow days in advance. Here's exactly what it says.
The Rule In Full
Carry-over and borrowing for police annual leave are governed by paragraph 3 of Annex O to the Police Regulations 2003 (Regulation 33), as amended from 1 April 2025. It sits directly beneath the paragraphs that set your basic entitlement by rank and service length, and it gives the chief officer of your force a specific, bounded discretion — not a blanket power to do whatever they like with unused leave.
"In the case of a member of a police force, the chief officer of police may, in his discretion and subject to the exigencies of duty—
(a) notwithstanding anything in paragraphs (1) and (2), where he is satisfied that, in any leave year, the member has not taken the full period of annual leave specified in those paragraphs, grant the member, during the following leave year, additional days of annual leave not exceeding the number of days not taken, so however that he shall not exercise his discretion so as to grant more than 5 additional days of annual leave to a member unless he is satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances and that it is in the interests of efficiency to do so;
(b) grant the member not more than 5 additional days of annual leave, to be taken in the last month of the leave year, subject to a corresponding reduction being effected in the member's period of annual leave under paragraph (1) for the following year."
Two distinct mechanisms are packed into that paragraph — carrying leave you didn't use forward into next year, and borrowing next year's leave early. They work in opposite directions, and it's worth treating them separately.
3(a): Carrying Over What You Didn't Use
If you finish a leave year without having taken your full entitlement, sub-paragraph (a) lets the chief officer grant you additional days in the following leave year, up to the number of days you didn't take. So if you were three days short at year-end, the chief officer can grant you those three days on top of your normal entitlement the following year.
The standard ceiling on this is 5 additional days. The chief officer cannot use this discretion to carry over more than 5 days in the ordinary run of things — the regulation is explicit that they "shall not exercise his discretion so as to grant more than 5 additional days" unless a specific exception is met.
The "Exceptional Circumstances" Exception
Beyond 5 days, the bar rises. The regulation only permits it where the chief officer "is satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances and that it is in the interests of efficiency to do so" — both conditions, not just one. That's a deliberately narrow exception. It isn't a second, higher cap you can rely on; it's a discretionary override that has to be justified on its own terms in your specific case. Don't plan around the assumption that it will apply to you — treat 5 days as the number that matters in practice, and the exception as something that might be available in a genuinely unusual situation.
3(b): Borrowing Leave In Advance
Sub-paragraph (b) works in the opposite direction. It lets the chief officer grant an officer up to 5 additional days of annual leave to be taken in the last month of the current leave year — effectively pulling forward days you haven't yet earned. The trade-off is built into the same sentence: whatever you borrow this way comes straight off your entitlement for the following year. Borrow 3 days now and your next year's allowance is reduced by 3 days.
This is a timing mechanism, not extra leave. It exists for officers who need days before the leave year rolls over — a holiday booked just before year-end, for example — and it balances out automatically the following year rather than needing a separate approval to claw the days back.
Discretionary, Not Automatic
Every part of Regulation 33(3) is framed as something the chief officer "may" do "in his discretion." Neither carry-over nor advance borrowing is a right that activates on its own at the end of the leave year. The regulation also makes both powers "subject to the exigencies of duty" — meaning that even where you'd otherwise qualify (you're clearly under your 5-day cap, say), operational need can still be the reason it's declined.
In practice, this means the request has to be made and approved, not assumed. If you're heading toward the end of a leave year with days unused, or you want to take leave early against next year's allowance, raise it with your line manager or rostering team in good time. Leaving it until the last few days of the leave year gives the chief officer's discretion far less room to work with, and no rule here obliges anyone to backfill days you didn't ask about.
Why This Comes Up So Often
Unused leave at year-end is common in policing for reasons that have nothing to do with an officer's own planning. Booked leave gets cancelled at short notice, officers get recalled mid-break for an operational demand, or a shift pattern simply makes it hard to fit remaining days in before the leave year closes. Whatever the cause, Regulation 33(3) is the rule that decides whether those days are recoverable — and knowing it exists is what lets you actually ask for it, rather than losing days by default because nobody raised it.
If the reason you're short on days is that booked leave was pulled at short notice, it's worth understanding your position on cancellation separately — see Can Police Cancel Annual Leave? for what a force can and can't do there. If instead you were called back mid-leave, that's a related but distinct mechanism with its own compensation rules, covered in Recall From Annual Leave.
Check Your Entitlement Before You Ask
Before raising carry-over with your rostering team, know exactly what you're entitled to by rank and service length, and how many days you've actually got left to work with.
Open The Annual Leave Calculator →Or head back to the Annual Leave hub for the rest of the cluster — entitlement by rank, part-time pro-rata, bank holidays and recall.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can police officers carry over unused annual leave?
Yes, but only at the chief officer's discretion. Under Police Regulations 2003 Annex O, Regulation 33(3)(a), where the chief officer is satisfied that an officer has not taken their full annual leave entitlement in a leave year, they may grant additional days in the following leave year equal to the number of days not taken. It is subject to the exigencies of duty and is not an automatic right.
How many days can be carried over?
The standard cap is 5 additional days of annual leave carried into the following leave year. The chief officer cannot exercise discretion to grant more than 5 additional days unless a specific exception applies.
Can more than 5 days ever be carried over?
Only where the chief officer is satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances and that granting more than 5 additional days is in the interests of efficiency. Both conditions have to be met — this is framed in the regulations as a narrow exception, not a routine option.
Can I borrow leave in advance from next year?
Yes. Regulation 33(3)(b) allows the chief officer to grant an officer not more than 5 additional days of annual leave, to be taken in the last month of the current leave year, with a corresponding reduction made to that officer's annual leave entitlement for the following year. In effect it is an advance on next year's leave, not extra leave.
Is carry-over automatic or does it need approval?
It needs approval. The regulation gives the chief officer discretion, subject to the exigencies of duty, to grant carried-over or advanced leave — it is not something that happens automatically at the end of the leave year. Officers with unused days should raise it with their line manager or rostering team rather than assume it will carry over.