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Daylight savings bid fails to pass House of Commons

Plans for a three-year trial to keep the clocks forward by one hour all year round was met with opposition by MPs.

20 January 2012 14:43 GMT

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A bid to move the clocks forward by an hour all year round failed in the House of Commons after the legislation ran out of time.

The Daylight Saving Bill would have commissioned a detailed study into the costs and benefits of moving the clocks forward to Greenwich Mean Time plus one hour in the winter and two in the summer, followed by a possible three-year trial.

Despite UK Government support for the study, the proposal faced opposition from a determined group of MPs who believed the extra hour of darkness in the morning would cause problems, particularly in the north of the country.

Daylight savings bid fails to pass House of Commons

The focused opposition saw the Daylight Saving Bill fail to make progress after a series of votes on Friday. Delays in the voting lobbies saw some divisions take longer than normal.

At the Bill's report stage, Tory Christopher Chope MP said "the Achilles heel" of the legislation was that "it enables the United Kingdom Government to change the time zone in Scotland without the consent of the Scottish Parliament".

The Bill required the Government to "consult" Scottish and Welsh ministers and obtain the agreement of the Northern Irish first and deputy first ministers, but Mr Chope said that did not go far enough.

"We know that the Scottish Parliament and that MPs representing Scottish constituencies in this House do not support a change that would make winter mornings in Scotland even colder and darker than they are already," he said.

Referring to road accidents, SNP Eilidh Whiteford, for Banff and Buchan, said: "Road accidents are far less to do with the amount of daylight than other factors - the way people drive and the weather conditions, for example."

Business Minister Edward Davey said: "The government believes this issue requires UK-wide consensus. The government will consult fully with the Welsh and Scottish governments over any proposed trial or proposal to make any trial permanent.

"The government would not expect to proceed with a trial if, following those consultations, there was clear opposition from any part of the country."

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