Too many Scots workers are failing to take their full annual leave

About 73% of workers north of the border who replied to an insurance company study said they regularly failed to take all of their holidays.

Workers in London fared worst, with 77% not using up their annual leave.

Nearly half of the 2,000 workers questioned across the UK revealed that they felt guilty whenever they took time off work.

The UK workforce already has the reputation of working the longest hours in Europe and hundreds of millions of pounds worth of annual leave is being wasted.

Holidays dashed

The survey found that 37% of workers said they had been too busy to use up their annual leave and 20% had simply forgotten.

Half the respondents believed that the standard UK annual leave allowance of 20 to 25 days was not enough.

About 46% of those surveyed said they would prefer to have 30 days holiday a year, with one-in-three saying they would like at least 35 days.

Mike Head, of Churchill Travel Insurance, said the UK had become a nation of workaholics, adding: "Our report shows that we're not even allowing ourselves a decent amount of time off work anymore, let alone the time to plan a holiday."