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UK Dates

30th March Summer Time Begins

Don't forget to put the clocks forward by one hour.

When will British Summer Time (BST) be in force in 2008?
Sunday 30th March 2008 1am GMT until
Sunday 26th October 2008 1am GMT

When was British Summer Time (BST) introduced?

British Summer Time was introduced in the UK in 1916.

When was the UK on permanent British Summer Time?
British Summer Time was permanently in force during the Second World War from February 1940 until October 1945 and again from February 1968 until October 1971.

Double summer time was in force from 1941-1947 except for 1946.

What are the date rules for British Summer time (BST)?
The rule for 1981-1994 defined the start of Summer Time as the last Sunday in March and the end as the day following the fourth Saturday in October. The time of change was altered to 1 am (GMT).

When do the clocks in Europe change to Summer Time?
In 1996 all clocks in Europe were changed the same date for the first time.

From 1998 BST was kept from the last Sunday in March until the last Sunday in October. This has been adopted as a directive from the European Parliament and was effective from 1998-2001 inclusive.

In 2002 an order was made to link UK summer time (BST) to Europe permanently. This means that the clocks will change over the Easter weekend which historically has not been the case.