BENEFITS
Lighter Later is about shifting Britain’s clocks forward by one hour throughout the year. In other words, instead of setting our clocks to GMT in winter and GMT+1 in summer, we would set them to GMT+1 in winter and GMT+2 in summer. We would still put our clocks forward in spring and back in autumn, but the sun would rise and set one hour later throughout the year, which would mean that more people are up and around when there is daylight.
Moving Britain’s clocks forward in this way has the potential to:
1 Cut at least 447,000 tonnes of CO2 pollution – equivalent to more than 50,000 cars driving all the way around the world – each year [1]
2 Save 80 lives each year and prevent hundreds of serious injuries by making the roads safer [2]
3 Lower our electricity bills by maximising the available daylight and reducing peak power demand [3]
4 Create 60,000–80,000 new jobs in leisure and tourism, bringing an extra £2.5–3.5 billion into the economy each year [4]
5 Reduce crime and the fear of crime [5]
6 Help make people healthier and tackle obesity by giving people more time to exercise and play sport outside in the evening [6]
7 Save the NHS around £138 million a year through reducing road casualties [7]
8 Improve quality of life for older people [8]
9 Make the nation happier – including reducing the effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder [9]
10 Demonstrate that dealing with climate change can be good for the economy, good for people and good for society as a whole
The two graphs below show just how inconvenient the present clock settings are for most people in the UK. The curved line shows how much of the British population is awake at any given time of day, while the yellow shaded area shows the daily hours of sunlight. Roll over the images to see how the Lighter Later campaign’s proposal – to move from GMT to GMT+1 in the winter and GMT+1 to GMT+2 in summer – would help us make better use of the available daylight each day. This timekeeping regime is known as Single Double Summer Time or SDST. Yes, we find that name confusing too!
![[graph]](/styles/images/graph3-a.jpg "Source: Brendan Cronin and Elizabeth Garnsey, \"Daylight Saving in GB; Is there evidence in favour of clock time on GMT?\", October 2007, Figure 2, p. 7/8: Daily Activity Patterns and hours of sunlight during winter and summer months, showing hours of daylight (shaded) on GMT and on GMT+1 (For Birmingham; adapted from National Office of Statistics)")
![[graph]](/styles/images/graph3-c.jpg "Source: Brendan Cronin and Elizabeth Garnsey, \"Daylight Saving in GB; Is there evidence in favour of clock time on GMT?\", October 2007, Figure 2, p. 7/8: Daily Activity Patterns and hours of sunlight during winter and summer months, showing hours of daylight (shaded) on GMT and on GMT+1 (For Birmingham; adapted from National Office of Statistics)")
1. Yu-Foong Chong, Elizabeth Garnsey, Simon Hill and Frederic Desobry “Daylight Saving, Electricity Demand and Emissions; Exploratory Studies from Great Britain”, October 2009, available at: http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/people/ewg/091022_dst.pdf
2. Broughton, J and Stone, M. Report 368, "A new assessment of the likely effects on road accidents of adopting a GMT+1/GMT+2 regime", Transport Research Laboratory, Crowthorne: 1998.
3. Yu-Foong Chong, Elizabeth Garnsey, Simon Hill and Frederic Desobry "Daylight Saving, Electricity Demand and Emissions; Exploratory Studies from Great Britain", October 2009, available at: http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/people/ewg/091022_dst.pdf
4. Hillman, M: “The Likely Impact on Tourist Activity in the UK of the Adoption of Daylight Saving”, Policy Studies Institute: 2008 (p.11).
5. Hillman, M: “Time For Change. Setting Clocks Forward by One Hour Throughout the Year: A New Review of the Evidence” (p. 8), Policy Studies Institute: 1993 and http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/poll.aspx?oItemId=471
6. The Sports Council for England have said that, “This increased opportunity of extra daylight after work, combined with our policy priority to get employers to do more in terms of promoting activity among their work force, could make a significant contribution towards driving up participation rates and delivering the associated health benefits that would stem from having an active and successful sporting nation.” Official Report: 8 June 2004; Vol. 422, c. 147.
7. Department for Transport, “A Safer Way: Consultation on Making Britain’s Roads the Safest in the World”: 2009.
8. In the words of Greg Lewis, Policy Manager for Communities and Society at Age Concern and Help the Aged: "We know that many older people will not go out once it is dark and having lighter evenings would mean that more older people could spend more time out of their homes if they choose to do so. Given the significant recent rises in energy prices, reducing household energy bills is now a further consideration.”
9. Hillman, M: “Time For Change. Setting Clocks Forward by One Hour Throughout the Year: A New Review of the Evidence”, Policy Studies Institute: 1993