Annual Leave
Take time away from duty with annual leave
Eligibility check:
What’s it for?
Everyone needs a break now and then. With Annual Leave, you can take time off from your Service duties to recharge your batteries and return to work refreshed.
What do I get?
The Annual Leave year runs from 1 April to 31 March. Regular and Full-Time Reserve Service people get 38 days’ Annual Leave a year, including public holidays.
Reservists on Additional Duties Commitments receive Annual Leave and public holidays leave proportionate to the number of days they attend per year. This is equal to three days’ leave for 26 commitment days worked, plus a calculation to work out your entitlement to public holidays leave.
Most Part Time Volunteer Reservists undertaking obligatory training or paid voluntary training and other duties will be entitled to pay in lieu of leave based on the number of days they attend per year. This is equal to 0.1040 days leave pay per Reserve Service Day completed.
Regular and Full Time Reservists may carry forward up to 15 days of annual leave into the next leave year.
Individual Leave Allowance
Individual Leave Allowance (ILA) consists of a combined total of four leave types:
Annual Leave
Authorised Absence
Post Operational Leave
Seagoers’ Leave.
An application for ILA will reduce the individual balances in the following order of priority:
Authorised Absence
Post Operational Leave
Seagoer’s Leave
Annual Leave Allowance
How do I claim this?
Providing you have the agreement of your chain of command, If you have a Defence Gateway account you can apply for annual leave from your own personal device on the My Leave app (part of the My Series) by following this link A short video showing you how to use the app can be found here (accessed via MODNet)
You can also book it on on JPA. The Request for absence (leave) self-service user guide, which can be found at JPA user guides, tells you how to do this.
If you don’t have access to JPA then you should send JPA Form R001 (which can be found at JPA forms) to your line manager.
Page last updated: 23 January 2024
Need more information?
Defnet access only
JSP 760 - annual leave
read chapter 1 of JSP 760 to find out more about annual leave