Gazette publication dates and court sitting days, 2026 to 2027

The London Gazette publishes online every working day, and a notice sent by email or post must reach it by 11.30am at least two working days before the edition. It does not publish on England and Wales bank holidays, and over Christmas 2026 there is no edition on 25 and 28 December or 1 January. The High Court sits in four terms; Michaelmas 2026 runs from 1 October to 21 December, and Hilary 2027 starts on 11 January. Court offices also close on 24 December. The catch is that the Insolvency Act counts a Scottish bank holiday as a non-business day even for an English petition, so the court, the Gazette and the rules do not always agree on which days count. The Gazette; judiciary.uk; Civil Procedure Rules

Data as of: The Gazette's publishing pages, judiciary.uk term dates, the Civil Procedure Rules and the gov.uk bank holiday list, all read 24 September 2026 · England and Wales, with the Edinburgh and Belfast Gazette deadlines for reference. To count the days on your own petition, use the petition timeline tool.

When The London Gazette publishes

Insolvency notices for companies in England and Wales, including winding-up petitions, go in The London Gazette. It is published online at thegazette.co.uk on each working day, and the online version is the official one. The printed edition comes out the next working day and carries the notices published online the day before.

Notices sent by email or post have to reach The Gazette before 11.30am at least two working days before the edition they are meant for. Some notice types can be published instantly online, and organisations registered and approved for self-serve placing are not bound by the deadlines at all. Notices for Scotland go in the Edinburgh Gazette, with copy due by 9.30am the working day ahead, and notices for Northern Ireland in the Belfast Gazette, due by 3pm the working day ahead.

Around bank holidays the schedule shifts. These are The Gazette's published London Gazette dates for 2026, which run to the edition of 6 January 2027. The Gazette's page prints that last date as 6 January 2026, but it sits in the Christmas 2026 table and plainly means 2027.

Source: The Gazette, 2026 publishing and deadline dates; Placing notices in The Gazette. Late notices and withdrawals are at the editor's discretion.

High Court terms and vacations

The High Court and the Court of Appeal sit in four terms a year, fixed by Practice Direction 2F to the Civil Procedure Rules. Michaelmas runs from 1 October to 21 December, Hilary from 11 January to the Wednesday before Easter, Easter from the second Tuesday after Easter Sunday to the Friday before the spring bank holiday, and Trinity from the second Tuesday after that holiday to 31 July. A start date on a weekend moves to the next Monday, and an end date on a weekend moves back to the Friday.

Vacation does not mean the court stops. In vacation, at least one judge of each Division sits for cases that need to be heard immediately or promptly, and a party can apply for a matter to be heard in vacation if it is urgent (PD 2F para 2.1). In August only applications of real urgency go to a judge, while September is open to any application at the judge's discretion (para 2.3). Chancery Masters make no distinction between term and vacation (para 2.4). For insolvency, the Insolvency Practice Direction says ICC Judges and High Court Judges hear urgent and time-critical applications as soon as reasonably practicable (para 7.1), and judiciary.uk says ICC Judges are expected to sit for a minimum of 210 days a year. How a given court lists winding-up petitions across the vacations is a matter for that court's own listing, so check the hearing date on the petition and the published cause list rather than assuming a vacation date is free.

Sources: Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, the legal year and term dates; CPR Practice Direction 2F, court sittings; Insolvency Practice Direction.

Days court offices are closed

Court offices of the Senior Courts and the County Court are open every day except Saturdays, Sundays, Good Friday, Christmas Day, bank holidays in England and Wales, and one further day over Christmas set by a table in Practice Direction 2A. In both 2026 and 2027 that further day is 24 December. Senior Courts offices at the Royal Courts of Justice are open to the public from 10am to 4.30pm.

If the last day for doing something at the court office, such as filing a document, falls on a day the office is closed, it is in time if done on the next day the office is open. That is CPR 2.8(5), and Schedule 5 to the Insolvency (England and Wales) Rules 2016 applies it to insolvency time limits. It does not move a deadline that has nothing to do with the court office, such as the date a Gazette notice must appear.

Sources: CPR Practice Direction 2A, court offices; CPR rule 2.8; IR 2016 Schedule 5; gov.uk bank holidays.

Days the calendars disagree

Insolvency time limits in business days use the definition in section 251 of the Insolvency Act 1986: any day except a Saturday, a Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday in any part of Great Britain. The courts and The London Gazette follow the England and Wales holidays. So on a Scottish-only bank holiday the English courts are open and The Gazette's schedules show no break in London Gazette publication, but the day does not count towards a "7 business days" period on an English petition. On 24 December it is the other way round: court offices are shut, yet the day is a business day and the London Gazette publishes. These are the weekdays in 2026 and 2027 where that happens.

A worked example over Christmas

Christmas is where these calendars bite hardest. Take an illustrative winding-up petition listed for hearing on Wednesday, 13 January 2027, in the first week of Hilary term. Rule 7.10 requires the Gazette notice to appear not less than 7 business days before the hearing, counted as clear days, and the petitioner's certificate of compliance is due 5 business days before.

So a petitioner placing the notice by email would need it at The Gazette by Christmas Eve, nearly three weeks ahead of a hearing in mid January, and 4 January only drops out of the count because it is a bank holiday in Scotland. For a company facing a petition, the practical point runs the other way: if no notice has appeared by the last possible day, rule 7.10 has not been met and the court may dismiss the petition, although it can also adjourn it and let the petitioner advertise in time for a later hearing.

Methodology and source

The London Gazette dates and deadlines were copied from The Gazette's own "2026 publishing and deadline dates" and "Placing notices in The Gazette" pages, and the 2 January 2026 edition from its 2025 schedule, all read on 24 September 2026. The Gazette had not published a 2027 bank holiday schedule when we checked, so no 2027 Gazette dates beyond 6 January are given. Term dates come from the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary, and we checked each one against the formula in Practice Direction 2F. Court office closures come from Practice Direction 2A and its annex, with bank holidays from the gov.uk list for England and Wales and for Scotland. The vacation spans, the table of days where the calendars disagree and the worked example are our own derivation from those sources and are labelled as such. This page covers England and Wales. It is general information, not legal or insolvency advice; if a petition has been served on your company, the hearing date on it and the court's own listing are what count.