Daylight Saving
Lobbying Success!
On 3 December 2010 the Daylight Saving Bill had its Second Reading in the House of Commons and passed though to the committee stages. This is a very significant step forward for the Bill and marks a success for our lobbying efforts.
The Bill, if passed, will require the UK to put its clocks forward by one hour in the winter and the summer, guaranteeing an extra hour of daylight in the evenings. The Bill has been put forward by Rebecca Harris, the Conservative MP for Castle Point in Essex. In total 92 MPs voted in favour of passing the Bill through to the Committee Stage and only ten voted against. Twenty two of the votes in favour of the move were from South East MPs.
During the debate a number of MPs from across the region spoke in favour of the Bill, including Winchester MP Steve Brine who had cut short his paternity leave especially to attend this important vote! A full list of the twenty two MPs is at the bottom of the page.
Benefits of the Proposed Change
The Tourism Alliance’s research in to this issue has found that an extra hour of daylight in the evenings could boost tourism earnings by up to £3.5billion a year. We believe that this benefit would be most pronounced in the South of England. The hour’s extra daylight would provide a particular boost for outdoor attractions and coastal/rural destinations by giving potential holiday makers more time to enjoy the region’s tourism offer. It is estimated that across the country this could result in the creation of an additional 80,000 jobs in the tourism and leisure sectors.
Other benefits that have been identified are that the proposed change would:
- Reduce the UK's CO2 emissions by 1.2m tonnes per annum
- Reduce serious injuries and deaths on the road by almost 300 per annum
- Help tackle obesity by providing an average of 55min more daylight leisure time in the evenings
An opinion piece in the Personal Finance section of the Times(£) on 6 November entitled ‘A vote to put money in your pocket’ supported the change on the grounds that it would provide monetary benefits to the majority of the population and said ‘Politicians won’t get many easier opportunities to put some money in their constituents’ pockets’. We heartily agree.
The former shadow Tourism Minister and MP for Bournemouth East, Tobias Ellwood, has written a pamphlet on the benefits of switching to double summertime or ‘Churchill Time’ as he dubbed it during the debate in recognition of the fact that during the second World War we moved our clocks forward one hour to improve productivity and maximise the use of daylight hours.
Download ‘Time to Change the Clocks’ here.
Industry Lobbying
Tourism South East wrote to all the MP’s in the region urging them to vote in favour of this Bill and we encouraged all of our members to write to their own MPs to support this position.
Follow this link to view our letter to MP’s.
Action that you can take!
This victory is an important step forward but the fight to move the clocks forward one hour and achieve huge benefits for the tourism sector is not won yet and there is still much to be done. Tourism South East is still lobbying MPs to support the proposed change and your help is vital.
If you would like to contact your MP you can find their contact details on this website.
More Information
Latest news on the Parliament website can be found here
For more information or suggestions contact the Development team.
MPs in the South East who voted for the Bill
- Adam Afriyie: Windsor
- Steve Baker: Wycombe
- Tony Baldry: North Oxfordshire
- Nicola Blackwood: Oxford West and Abingdon
- Peter Bottomley: West Worthing
- Julian Brazier: Canterbury
- Steve Brine: Winchester and Chandlers Ford
- Damian Collins: Folkestone and Hythe
- Charlie Elphicke: Dover
- Roger Gale: North Thanet
- Sam Gyimah: East Surrey
- Simon Kirby: Brighton Kemptown
- Philip Lee: Bracknell
- Stephen Lloyd: Eastbourne and Willingdon
- Caroline Lucas: Brighton Pavilion
- Caroline Nokes: Southampton North and Romsey
- Mark Reckless: Rochester and Strood
- Amber Rudd: Hastings and Rye
- Laura Sandys: South Thanet
- Andrew Smith: Oxford East
- Andrew Tyrie: Chichester
- Mike Weatherley: Hove and Portslade
