2026 LegislationRunning a small business means you end up managing absence as much as performance. One person off can be a mild inconvenience or a genuine operational problem, depending on your rota, deadlines, and how specialised the role is. The law does not expect you to be heartless, but it does expect you to be organised.
A good leave request process does two things at once. It gives staff a clear route to ask for time off, and it gives you a paper trail when you have to say "yes", "not those dates", or occasionally "no". Honestly, most disputes start because the request was made on a Friday afternoon, agreed in a corridor, and forgotten until payroll week.
Choose your legal document:
When to use these templates
Use these templates any time an employee is asking to be away from work and you need the request captured properly, with dates, reason (where appropriate), and a clear decision. That includes the everyday stuff like annual leave, but also the awkward grey areas like unpaid leave, time off for dependants, and extended sickness where fit notes and pay eligibility matter.
They are also useful when you are trying to keep your approach consistent across a team. If you have ever approved one person’s last-minute holiday and then had to refuse another because "we cannot set a precedent", you already know why consistency matters. A simple form and response letter helps you show you treated requests fairly.
If you are dealing with statutory leave, these templates help you line up the request with the right legal test. Maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental leave, parental leave, and statutory sick pay all have their own rules, notice requirements, and evidence points. Getting the basics wrong can turn a straightforward absence into a grievance, or worse, a tribunal claim.
- Use them when you need written confirmation of approved dates for planning, handovers, and payroll.
- Use them when you need to refuse or propose alternative dates without it sounding personal.
- Use them when you need to request evidence, such as a fit note or proof of eligibility, without overreaching.
What you will find in this category
- Annual leave request and approval/refusal letters, including options to propose alternative dates and record remaining entitlement.
- Sickness absence documents, covering self-certification, fit note requests, and communications around Statutory Sick Pay (SSP).
- Unpaid leave request templates, suitable for discretionary leave where there is no automatic statutory right (but you still want a record).
- Parental and family leave requests, including maternity, paternity, adoption, shared parental leave, and unpaid parental leave, with notice and information prompts.
- Time off for dependants request/record forms, for emergencies involving a dependant where the time off is usually short and unpaid.
- Compassionate/bereavement leave requests and responses, reflecting that this is often contractual or discretionary, but should be handled carefully.
- Study/training leave requests, including approval conditions (fees, repayment clauses, and time off arrangements).
Legal framework and key points to watch
Most day-to-day leave administration sits on a few core building blocks: the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Working Time Regulations 1998, and (for sickness pay) the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 alongside SSP regulations. Annual leave is the big one. Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday per leave year (pro-rated for part-time). You can control when leave is taken, but only if you give proper notice and apply rules evenly.
Notice is where businesses trip up. Employees must give notice of at least twice the length of the leave requested unless your contract says otherwise. Employers can refuse a holiday request, but you must give counter-notice at least as long as the leave requested. If someone asks for a week off, you generally need to refuse at least a week before it starts. Miss that window and you may end up approving leave by default, or creating a dispute you did not need.
Sickness is different. The employee can self-certify for the first 7 calendar days; after that, you can require a fit note. SSP has eligibility rules (including average earnings and waiting days), and you should be careful not to imply that SSP is guaranteed if the criteria are not met. One more thing: absences linked to disability can trigger duties under the Equality Act 2010. A rigid "three strikes" approach to sickness absence can become risky if you fail to consider reasonable adjustments. Disciplining or dismissing without considering disability-related absence is a common route into discrimination claims.
Family leave carries its own set of deadlines and protections. Maternity leave and pay, paternity leave, adoption leave, and shared parental leave each have notice requirements and eligibility conditions. Unpaid parental leave (for parents) is a separate right again, with limits on how much can be taken per year per child in most cases. The practical point is simple: your template should prompt for the right information, but it should not ask for intrusive details that you do not need. Keep it proportionate.
Why our templates
- Drafted to fit UK practice, with wording that aligns with the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Working Time Regulations 1998.
- Regularly reviewed so your documents keep pace with changes in statutory rates and accepted HR practice.
- Lawyer-reviewed structure that helps you record the decision, the reasons, and any conditions without inflammatory language.
- Delivered in editable Word format plus a clean PDF, so you can customise once and reuse across the business.
- Built-in prompts for evidence and notice periods, so you do not forget the boring details that later become the whole argument.