Time to lighten up?
On October 31 somebody switched the lights out and we were all plunged into instant darkness long before most of us were ready to pack up and head home at the end of another working day.
The debate over the merits or otherwise of switching our clocks to accommodate the optimistically named British Summer Time have gone on for a long time, certainly longer than the short-lived benefit of an extra hour in bed every autumn.
The issue is particularly key in Scotland because our northerly latitude results in particularly short winter days and there has been a perception that we have been adverse to any changes which would trade off lighter mornings for lighter evenings.
Now the debate has moved more firmly into the political arena with the Daylight Saving Bill currently before the House of Commons and scheduled to receive its second reading at the start of this month. The Bill looks at the most widely discussed proposal which is to move to GMT +1 hour in winter and GMT + 2 hours in summer – which basically means advancing UK clocks by one hour throughout the year.
The Lighter Later coalition who championed the private members bill claim that a wide spread of Scottish organisations and the majority of the Scots population are supportive of the proposed changes and would welcome further debate on the issue.
They are backing up their claims with research carried out by the Policy Studies Institute at the University of Westminster which looked specifically at the implications for Scotland.
The study concluded that switching Scotland to European Central Time to give us longer, lighter evenings would bring a range of benefits.
Adults in 9-to-5 employment for example would gain a yearly total of almost 300 additional hours of daylight, with more than half of these falling on working days. School pupils, children and elderly would also derive benefits from the change – children could spend more time out of doors in the evenings, increasing their activity levels and the elderly would have an increased sense of security.
Other benefits claimed in the report included:
• Reduced number of road deaths because more people would be travelling home during daylight hours
• Increased opportunities for outdoor leisure and social activities in the evenings
• Health benefits because of the greater opportunities for physical activity and because of increased hours of exposure to sunlight
• Widening the opportunities for people afraid to go out in the dark, particularly the elderly, to be out of doors
• Boosting the tourism and leisure industries through increased revenue and job generation which could significantly boost the Scottish economy
• Sunset an hour later throughout the year would improve the quality of life for the majority of the population because they would have more daylight hours to enjoy the evening
In terms of trade and industry, Scotland (and the rest of the UK) would have improved harmonisation of time with key trading partners in the EU through closer alignment of working hours and increased convenience of business travel. Businesses would also benefit in other ways, including from a reduction in energy costs for heating and lighting.
The outcome of the debate in Parliament on December 3 will determine how the Daylight Saving Bill proceeds – at the time of writing that is still in the future.
But however it turned out, the wider public debate on the issue will continue. Tourism, road safety organisations, the Scottish Government, agricultural bodies and public sector agencies are all putting forward opinion and the Chamber would also encourage members to send us their views to help us formulate Chamber opinion.
Should we flick the switch on the lighter later proposals – or do you see light at the end of the tunnel in the call for change?
Email your thoughts on this to kate.yuill@agcc.co.uk
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