British Summer Time

His original proposal was to move the clocks forward by 80 minutes, in 20-minute weekly steps on Sundays in April and by the reverse procedure in September.

To bring this about, the clocks were not put back by an hour at the end of summer in 1940 (BST having started early, on 25 February 1940).

[9][10][11] An inquiry during the winter of 1959–60, in which 180 national organisations were consulted, revealed a slight preference for a change to all-year GMT+1, but instead the length of summer time was extended as a trial.

[12] A further inquiry during 1966–1967 led the government of Harold Wilson to introduce the British Standard Time experiment, with Britain remaining on GMT+1 throughout the year.

Analysis of accident data for the first two years of the experiment, published by HMSO in October 1970, indicated that while there had been an increase in casualties in the morning, there had been a substantially greater decrease in casualties in the evening, with a total of around 2,700 fewer people killed and seriously injured on the roads during the first two winters of the experiment,[13][14][15] at a time when about 1,000 people a day were killed or injured on the roads.

[20] A campaign in 2010, "Lighter Later", in addition to publicising the risk reductions described above, also highlighted the potential energy benefits of Single/Double Summer Time, arguing that the change could "save almost 500,000 tonnes of CO2 each year, equivalent to taking 185,000 cars off the road permanently".

[21] In 2015 road safety campaigner Paul A. Singh and former police Chief Constable Keith Hellawell campaigned for the cessation of British Summer Time after research into Department for Transport data showed that it could lead to a reduction in pedestrian road accidents especially for children.

[24] Other opponents of daylight saving measures say that darker mornings, especially in Scotland, could affect children going to school and people travelling to work.

In 2004, English MP Nigel Beard tabled a Private Member's Bill in the House of Commons proposing that England and Wales should be able to determine their own time independently of Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In 2005, Lord Tanlaw introduced the Lighter Evenings (Experiment) Bill[29] into the House of Lords, which would advance winter and summer time by one hour for a three-year trial period at the discretion of "devolved bodies", allowing Scotland and Northern Ireland the option not to take part.

"[33] A survey in late October 2010 of about 3,000 people for British energy firm npower suggested that a narrow majority of Scots may be in favour of this change, though the Scottish Government remained opposed.

[36] Angus MacNeil, MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, argued that it would adversely affect the population of Northern Scotland, while Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP for North East Somerset, tried to introduce an amendment to give Somerset its own time zone, 15 minutes behind London, in order to highlight what he saw as the absurdities of the bill.