Sarah Newton supports review into more daylight in winter

Truro and Falmouth MP, Sarah Newton, has supported the Bill to conduct an evidence-based study into retaining British Summer Time (BST) all the year round.  Changing the time is nothing new in itself and was first introduced in 1916 to help in the war effort.  Winston Churchill himself altered the time zone to increase productivity during the Second World War.

The Daylight Savings Bill was proposed by the backbench MP Rebecca Harris, and called on the Government to conduct a comprehensive study into the benefits of keeping BST rather than changing the clocks twice a year.  If such a change ever did come into effect, the result would be an extra hour of daylight in the evenings during the winter months and could bring a whole range of benefits.

Such advantages could be the saving of 80 lives a year which are lost in road traffic accidents, less electricity and gas being used in the evenings which would cut both costs and carbon emissions, and the majority of people would be able to have another hour of recreation in the evenings which would otherwise be spent indoors.

The Bill was put before the House of Commons on Friday 3rd December and was passed by a sizeable majority.  Although the Bill does not actually change the time, it does compel the Government to establish a commission to investigate the possibility of altering the time across the whole of the UK.  The Minister responding to the result, Ed Davey MP, stated that the views of the entire UK would have to be taken into account as changes could negatively affect certain areas such as northern Scotland.

Having voted in favour of the Bill, Sarah Newton said; “I have received more correspondence from my constituents on this issue than any other since I entered Parliament and almost all have asked me to support this study.  Many of these constituents were from the medical profession and highlighted the number of lives that could be saved on Britain’s roads by having more light during rush hours.  Others pointed to the environmental impact and a number of small business owners told me of the potential for increased sales.”

Sarah continued: “Government policy should be based on hard evidence and I believe it is correct that the Government should commission a study into the potential benefits that could be brought by changing our time zone.”