Government urged to back clock change
The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport (PACTS) Safety has called on the Government to back a bill to give lighter evenings.
The Lighter Evenings Bill, tabled by Labour MP Nigel Beard, proposes advancing the clocks by an hour throughout the year.
This would place England and Wales in the same time zone as continental Europe and lead to lighter evenings and end the biannual ritual of clock changing.
PACTS argues that the change would “promote trade, tourism and physical activity and prevent road casualties”.
PACTS is a charitable group which aims to lobby MPs to introduce transport legislation it believes will “protect human life”.
Its executive director, Robert Gifford, said: “This simple measure would save a significant number of lives at no expense. It is time for the Government to act.”
PACTS says it recognises that the bill is unlikely to become law in this session, but argued it should be included in any future legislation designed to reduce road accidents or combat obesity.
RoSPA, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, is also backing the bill.
They estimate that it could prevent 450 deaths and serious accidents a year, claiming that under the current system road accidents increase when the clocks are moved in the autumn due to the combination of darker evenings and worse weather.
Head of road safety, Kevin Clinton said: “There may be more casualties on winter mornings, but these would be outweighed by the reduction in deaths and injuries in the evenings
“Longer evenings would provide more opportunity for outdoor activities, and would bring significant environmental, economic and health benefits – the latter being particularly relevant to the current debate about obesity and public health.”
RoSPA are calling for a two year trial of the proposals “using modern evaluation methods and data collection to give accurate figures on the benefits in terms of reducing road accidents.”
A spokesman for the Department of Transport told politics.co.uk that research does suggest that there could be some road safety benefits.
However he said that any change would be the responsibility of the Department of Trade and Industry who would have to consider the wider implications to the economy and society.
A previous attempt to standardise the UK with European continental time in the early 1970s was heavily defeated by MPs.
Agricultural groups and Scottish farmers were particularly opposed to any change, warning of a reduction in working hours and claimed the switch would have a detrimental effect on their livestock, who would be unable to adjust to the change.
