Summarise with AI
What the regulations cover
Four things, and almost every UK rota question comes back to one of them:
- Maximum hours — a 48-hour average working week, normally over a 17-week reference period
- Rest — 20 minutes on a shift over six hours, 11 hours between working days, 24 hours off a week
- Night work — an average 8 hours in each 24, plus a free health assessment
- Paid holiday — 5.6 weeks a year, which is 28 days for a five-day week
The 48-hour week and the opt-out
The limit is an average, not a ceiling on any single week. A 60-hour week is not automatically unlawful; a sustained run of 50-hour weeks quietly is. That distinction is the one employers most often get backwards in both directions.
A worker may opt out, in writing and voluntarily, and may withdraw the opt-out later. Keep the signed opt-outs somewhere retrievable — in a dispute, the burden of showing compliance sits with the employer. Workers under 18 cannot opt out and are limited to 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week.
Who is exempt
The 48-hour limit does not apply to some categories, including roles requiring 24-hour staffing, the armed forces, emergency services and police, security and surveillance work, domestic service in a private household, sea and inland-waterway work, and managing executives with genuine control over their own hours.
"24-hour staffing" is narrower than it sounds — it does not simply mean any business that trades around the clock. If you are relying on an exemption, check it properly rather than assuming. Our rota laws guide works through each limit, and the shift patterns guide shows how 24/7 cover is normally built without breaching the rest rules. Proving those limits are met is a record-keeping exercise — see timesheets and working time records.
