Time in the United Kingdom
| light blue | Western European Time / Greenwich Mean Time (UTC) |
| blue | Western European Time / Greenwich Mean Time (UTC) Western European Summer Time (UTC+1) |
| red | Central European Time (UTC+1) Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) |
| yellow | Eastern European Time / Kaliningrad Time (UTC+2) |
| golden | Eastern European Time (UTC+2) Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+3) |
| light green | Further-eastern European Time / Moscow Time / Turkey Time (UTC+3) |
The United Kingdom uses Greenwich Mean Time or Western European Time (UTC) and British Summer Time or Western European Summer Time (UTC+01:00).
History
Until the advent of the railways, the United Kingdom used Local Mean Time. Greenwich Mean Time was adopted first by the Great Western Railway in 1840 and a few others followed suit in the following years. In 1847 it was adopted by the Railway Clearing House, and by almost all railway companies by the following year. It was from this initiative that the term "railway time" was derived.
It was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held "local mean time" to be the official time.[1] On 14 May 1880, a letter signed by 'Clerk to Justices' appeared in 'The Times', stating that 'Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England, but it appears that Greenwich time is not legal time. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 8 13 and closed at 4 13 PM.'[2][3] This was changed later in 1880, when Greenwich Mean Time was legally adopted throughout the island of Great Britain under the Statutes (Definition of Time) Act 1880 (43 & 44 Vict.). GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time.[4]
Daylight saving time was introduced by the Summer Time Act 1916 (6 & 7 Geo. V), which was implemented in 1916 as GMT plus one hour and Dublin Mean Time plus one hour. The length of DST could be extended by Order in Council, and was extended for the duration of World War I. For 1916, DST extended from 21 May to 1 October, with transitions at 02:00 standard time. On 1 October 1916, Greenwich Mean Time was introduced to Ireland.[4]
At the beginning of the 20th century, Sandringham Time (UTC+00:30) was used by the royal household. This practice was halted by King Edward VIII, in an effort to reduce confusions over time.
The dates of British Summer Time are the subject of the Summer Time Act 1972. From 1972 to 1980, the day following the 3rd Saturday in March was the start of British Summer Time (unless that day was Easter Sunday, in which case BST began a week earlier), with the day following the 4th Sunday in October being the end of British Summer Time. From 1981 to 2001, the dates were set in line with various European Directives. Since 2002 the Act has specified the last Sunday in March as the start of British Summer Time with the last Sunday in October being end of British Summer Time.[5]
Experimentations with Central European Time
The United Kingdom experimentally adopted Central European Time by maintaining Summer Time throughout the year from 1968 to 1971.[6] In a House of Lords debate, Richard Butler, 17th Viscount Mountgarret said that the change was welcomed at the time, but the experiment was eventually halted after a debate in 1971, in which the outcome might have been influenced by a major accident on the morning of the debate.[7]
Proposals to adopt CET have been raised by various politicians over the years,[6][8] including a proposal in 2011 to conduct an analysis of the costs and benefits.[9]
Devolution
Authority over the time zone in Northern Ireland is devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly[10] but the power has never been used. In Scotland and Wales, time zone is a reserved matter, meaning that (as in England) only the Parliament of the United Kingdom has power to legislate.
IANA time zone database
The IANA time zone database contains one zone for the United Kingdom in the file zone.tab, named Europe/London. This refers to the area having the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code "GB". The zone names Europe/Guernsey, Europe/Isle_of_Man and Europe/Jersey exist because they have their own ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 but the zone.tab entries are links to Europe/London. There are several entries for UK possessions around the world.
Data directly from zone.tab of the IANA time zone database. Columns marked with * are the columns from zone.tab itself.
| c.c.* | Coordinates* | TZ* | Comments* | UTC offset | UTC DST offset |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GB | +513030-0000731 | Europe/London | +00:00 | +01:00 | |
| GI | +3608-00521 | Europe/Gibraltar | +01:00 | +02:00 | |
| GG | +4927-00232 | Europe/Guernsey | +00:00 | +01:00 | |
| IM | +5409-00428 | Europe/Isle_of_Man | +00:00 | +01:00 | |
| JE | +4912-00207 | Europe/Jersey | +00:00 | +01:00 | |
| AI | +1812-06304 | America/Anguilla | −04:00 | −04:00 | |
| MS | +1643-06213 | America/Montserrat | −04:00 | −04:00 | |
| TC | +2128-07108 | America/Grand_Turk | −05:00 | −04:00 | |
| AQ | -6734-06808 | Antarctica/Rothera | Rothera Station, Adelaide Island | −03:00 | −03:00 |
| BM | +3217-06446 | Atlantic/Bermuda | −04:00 | −03:00 | |
| GS | -5416-03632 | Atlantic/South_Georgia | −02:00 | −02:00 | |
| SH | -1555-00542 | Atlantic/St_Helena | +00:00 | +00:00 | |
| FK | -5142-05751 | Atlantic/Stanley | −03:00 | −03:00 | |
| IO | -0720+07225 | Indian/Chagos | +06:00 | +06:00 | |
| PN | -2504-13005 | Pacific/Pitcairn | −08:00 | −08:00 | |
British territories
- UTC−08:00 — Pitcairn Islands
- UTC−05:00 — Cayman Islands
- UTC−04:00 (AST with DST) — Bermuda
- UTC−04:00 (AST without DST) — Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands
- UTC−03:00 (FKST) — Falkland Islands
- UTC−02:00 — South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
- UTC (GMT with DST) — main territory of the United Kingdom, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey
- UTC (GMT without DST) — Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
- UTC+01:00 (CET with DST) — Gibraltar
- UTC+02:00 (EET with DST) — Akrotiri and Dhekelia
- UTC+06:00 — British Indian Ocean Territory
See also
References
- ↑ Howse 1997, p. 114
- ↑ CLERK TO JUSTICES. "Time, Actual And Legal". Times, London, England, 14 May 1880: 10. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 18 Aug. 2015.
- ↑ Bartky, Ian R. (2007). One Time Fits All: The Campaigns for Global Uniformity. Stanford University Press. p. 134. ISBN 0804756422. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
- 1 2 Myers J (5 October 2008). "History of legal time in Britain". Retrieved 15 July 2009.
- ↑ "Summer Time Act 1972". The National Archives.
- 1 2 "Fresh attempt to change UK time". BBC News. 25 January 2007. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
- ↑ "Central European Time Bill [H.L.] HL Deb 11 January 1995 vol 560 cc243-84". Hansard. 1995. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
- ↑ "Tundra time call in clocks debate". BBC News. 23 October 2009. Retrieved 19 January 2010.
- ↑ "Plan to bring UK clocks forward". BBC News. 20 February 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2011.
- ↑ The Role of the Advocate General and its constitutional context, Office of the Advocate General of Scotland, speech delivered 18 March 2011, retrieved 1 January 2014, "For example, the Northern Ireland Assembly has the legislative competence to deal with time zones."