British Summer Time

British Summer Time (BST) is the daylight saving time in effect in the United Kingdom between the last Sunday in March and the last Sunday in October each year. BST is the same as Central European Time: one hour in advance of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), UTC+1.

Starting in 1916, the dates for the beginning and end of BST each year were mandated by the British Parliament. In February 2002, the Summer Time Order 2002 permanently changed the dates to match European rules for daylight saving time.

During World War II, Britain retained the hour's advance on GMT at the beginning of the winter in 1940, but continued to advance the clocks by an extra hour until the end of the summer of 1945. During these summers Britain was thus 2 hours ahead of GMT and operating on British Double Summer Time.

Safety campaigners, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA), have made recommendations that British Summer Time be maintained over the winter months, and that a "double summertime" be applied to the current British Summer Time period, making the UK two hours ahead of GMT during summer. ROSPA suggest that this would decrease the number of accidents that occur over this period as a result of the evenings being lighter, as was shown when the British Standard Time scheme was trialled between 1968 and 1971, when Britain remained on UTC+1 all year. ROSPA have called for the two year trial to be repeated with modern evaluation methods. This proposal is, however, opposed by farmers and other outdoor workers, and many residents of Scotland, since it would mean that in winter dawn would be delayed until 10 a.m. or later in northern Britain.

Dates British Summer Time

Summer	Begins	Ends
1998	29 March	25 October
1999	28 March	31 October
2000	26 March	29 October
2001	25 March	28 October
2002	31 March	27 October
2003	30 March	26 October
2004	28 March	31 October
2005	27 March	30 October
2006	26 March	29 October
2007	25 March	28 October