Rest break (minutes)

The uninterrupted break a worker gets on a working day longer than six hours, away from the workstation.

20minutes

Primary source only Statutory Instrument Great Britain in force since 1998-10-01

Checked against its sources: statute verified 2026-09-21

Scope: 20 minutes for a day of more than six hours, and one break, not one per six hours. A YOUNG worker's break is 30 minutes after four and a half hours (reg 12(4)) and is a separate figure. Where the Part 3 exceptions switch regulation 12 off, regulation 24 gives an equivalent period of compensatory rest instead — which is a different entitlement, not this one.

Current sources

Source A · Legislationhttps://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/made (SI 1998/1833 reg 12(3) as made: "Subject to the provisions of any applicable collective agreement or workforce agreement, the rest break provided for in paragraph (1) is an uninterrupted period of not less than 20 minutes, and the worker is entitled to spend it away from his workstation if he has one"; in force 1 October 1998, reg 1(1))

retrieved 2026-09-11

History

Value	From	To	Status	Sources
20	1998-10-01	—	Primary source only	Legislation: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/made (SI 1998/1833 reg 12(3) as made: "Subject to the provisions of any applicable collective agreement or workforce agreement, the rest break provided for in paragraph (1) is an uninterrupted period of not less than 20 minutes, and the worker is entitled to spend it away from his workstation if he has one"; in force 1 October 1998, reg 1(1)) retrieved 2026-09-11

Receipt

Everything above is reproducible and independently checkable — no trust in this site required (how verification works).

Figure ID: employment.working_time.rest_break_minutes
Name in the API: Rest break: minimum minutes
Record fields (source type · unit · jurisdiction · status): si·minutes·GB·single_source_A
Record hash (canonical JSON, SHA-256): sha256:303589b676fdef3b9441da48185be645534f5cbd11b8d67c9e5766ab61b13675
Source snapshots (SHA-256): Legislation: sha256:702d61bf3f06765266766b01fd082464b0d0750526f6a1d8019d63ab3a2c9c26
Listed in the signed manifest: release 3.0.0 manifest · record_hashes["employment.working_time.rest_break_minutes"]
Machine-readable record: /v1/figures/employment.working_time.rest_break_minutes · current only: /v1/figures/employment.working_time.rest_break_minutes/current

Compiler's notes

An SI carry (ADR-0014), and a HOST-STATES one: SI 2002/3128 reg 13 touched regulation 12's paragraphs (1) and (2) — substituting "a worker" for "an adult worker" — and nothing has touched paragraph (3), which is the provision this value sits in. So the 1998 Regulations state the value by their own words and their as-made text is its own frozen witness. The archived drafting is "is an uninterrupted period", not "shall be": the token is read off the bytes, not modernised. No archived GOV.UK page states the 20 minutes, so the record is single_source_A by design.