Should the UK Change Time Zone? Sunrise Under Each Option

The UK has no plan to change: the government told BBC News on 24 October 2026 it has no plans to alter the clock changes. Permanent BST would move sunrise an hour later all winter and remove every afternoon sunset before 16:00.

By World Date and Time editorial team · Published 2 November 2026

The UK keeps UTC+0 in winter and UTC+1 in summer. Three alternatives get raised: staying on GMT all year, staying on British Summer Time all year, or moving a further hour ahead of today’s clocks. This guide takes no side. It counts what each would do to sunrise and sunset in seven cities, day by day for 2026. In London, permanent BST would raise the number of days with sunrise after 08:00 from 28 to 110, and lower the number with sunset before 16:00 from 34 to 0. In Edinburgh the figures are 77 to 130 and 51 to 0. The tables below show where those numbers come from.

What the law says now

The Summer Time Act 1972 says the time for general purposes in Great Britain is one hour in advance of Greenwich mean time during the period of summer time. That period begins at one o’clock Greenwich mean time on the last Sunday in March and ends at one o’clock on the last Sunday in October (Summer Time Act 1972). The Act applies to Northern Ireland, and applies to Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man unless they make other provision. GOV.UK gives the dates: in 2026 clocks went forward on 29 March and back on 25 October. In 2027 they change on 28 March and 31 October, and in 2028 on 26 March and 29 October (GOV.UK). Look at the clock change and its exact hour on the UK clock change page. For how the idea began and how it spread, see the daylight saving guide.

The four options, as clock times

Each option is a rule for the UTC offset in winter and in summer. Today’s rule is UTC+0 in winter and UTC+1 in summer. Permanent GMT is UTC+0 in both. Permanent BST is UTC+1 in both. The fourth, often called Central European Time, keeps the clock one hour ahead of today’s all year, so it is UTC+1 in winter and UTC+2 in summer. BBC News describes it as no change in October and a spring change to BST plus one hour (BBC News). That is the clock Paris already keeps, so London and Paris would show the same time all year.

Midwinter and midsummer sunrise

Only the clock changes. The sun rises and sets at the same instant whatever the clock says, so each option is the same sunrise shifted by whole hours. The first table shows 21 December 2026, the shortest day, at UTC+0 and at UTC+1. At UTC+0 the sun rises in London at 08:04 and sets at 15:53. Look up your own place on the London sunrise page or the Edinburgh sunrise page.

Method: Sunrise and sunset from the site's sun engine (SunCalc) at the coordinates of each city's sun page, rounded to the minute. UTC+0 is the clock in force now and under permanent GMT. UTC+1 is permanent BST and the clock under the one-hour-further option.

The gap between south and north is large. Plymouth has 8 h 01 min of daylight on 21 December and Aberdeen 6 h 41 min. At UTC+1 the sun would rise after 09:00 in every city in the table, as late as 09:46 in Aberdeen, and set between 16:27 and 17:15. The second table shows 21 June.

Method: Same method as the winter table. Daylight is the time from sunrise to sunset and does not depend on the clock.

In summer, permanent GMT would put sunrise before 04:00 in London, Cardiff, Birmingham and Belfast, with London at 03:43. UTC+2 would put sunset after 22:00 in every one of the seven cities. Belfast is 23.7 minutes behind Greenwich in mean solar time and Plymouth 16.6, at four minutes for each degree of longitude west, which is why the west of the UK has the later sunrise and sunset on any one clock.

Counting the dark mornings and evenings

A solstice is one day. The next table counts every day of 2026. Each cell gives two numbers: days with sunrise after 08:00 on the clock, then days with sunset before 16:00. The clock for the first column is the one actually in force on the day, so it is the year as it was. The three others apply one rule to the whole year.

Method: Each of the 365 days of 2026 was read from the site's sun engine with tzdata 2026f. Sunrise and sunset are rounded to the minute and compared with 08:00 and 16:00 on the clock of that option. In the first column the clock is the one in force on the day. Counts can move by a day or two with the engine's accuracy of about a minute.

Trading one for the other is the whole story. Moving from today’s clock to permanent BST removes every afternoon sunset before 16:00 in all seven cities, from 63 days in Aberdeen and 51 in Edinburgh. The price is later sunrises: 78 days to 129 in Aberdeen, and 51 to 123 in Plymouth. The extra hour in the evening in winter is paid for by an hour less at the start of the morning. Permanent GMT would leave the winter figures almost as they are, because the clock is already on GMT from late October to late March, and change the summer. The next table counts the other end of the clock.

Method: Same days and method as the table above, compared with 05:00 and 21:00.

Permanent GMT would bring 128 days with sunrise before 05:00 in London, against 53 now, and would remove all 60 days with sunset after 21:00. Moving a further hour ahead has the opposite effect in London: no sunrise before 05:00 at all, and 131 days with sunset after 21:00. The morning cost is larger too: 160 days in Edinburgh with sunrise after 08:00, against 77 now. Whether a bright evening is worth a dark morning depends on who is up when, and this guide does not judge it. It does not measure road safety, health or energy use, and it makes no claim about them.

The 1968 to 1971 trial

Britain has tried it. The time zone database records that from 27 October 1968 to 31 October 1971 the clocks in London stayed at UTC+1 all year, labelled BST (tz database europe). That is 1099 days. The British Standard Time Act 1968 set it up (British Standard Time Act 1968), and the Summer Time Act 1972 repealed it (Summer Time Act 1972). BBC News says northern Scotland saw a net increase in the number of people killed or seriously injured during the trial (BBC News). This guide cannot check that figure, and the tables above do not use it.

Where it stands

On 24 October 2026 BBC News reported that the UK government is not considering a move to Central European Time. Its spokesperson said the current daylight-saving arrangements represent the optimal use of the available daylight across the UK, that there are no plans to introduce any changes, and that there is insufficient evidence to support changing the current system of clock changes (BBC News). The same article recalls Jersey’s 2008 referendum on adopting Central European Time, in which 6,564 of nearly 24,000 voters answered yes, and a Daylight Savings Private Members’ Bill in 2011. It also says opposition in Scotland, where some areas would be without daylight until 10am in winter, is part of why the case has struggled.

Method and limits

Sunrise and sunset come from the site’s sun engine, which uses the SunCalc library (source code), at the coordinates of each city’s sun page, with tzdata 2026f for the clock in force on each day. The engine is accurate to about a minute, so a count can shift by a day or two. Sunrise here is the moment the top edge of the sun appears on a flat horizon. Hills, buildings and cloud change what you see. To check your own street, use the London time zone page for the offset and the sunrise page for your city for the daily times.