Summer Time Order 1982

HL Deb 22 November 1982 vol 436 cc718-20

3.1 p.m.

Lord Glenarthur rose to move, That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty praying that the Summer Time Order 1982 be made in the form of the draft laid before the House on 14th October.

The noble Lord said: My Lords, the order was considered by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments on 19th October and they have no comments. This draft order extends to 1983, 1984 and 1985 the present arrangements for determining the starting and ending dates for summer time. This means that summer time will begin on the last Sunday in March and end on the Sunday after the fourth Saturday in October, as at present.

Your Lordships may recall that the Summer Time Act 1972 provides for summer time to begin on the Sunday after the third Saturday in March and to end on the Sunday after the fourth Saturday in October. However, Section 2 provides that in relation to any year Her Majesty may by Order in Council direct that the period of summer time shall instead be such period as may be specified. In 1980, following discussions with our European Community partners, it was agreed that summer time should begin on the same day throughout the Community. In order to achieve this, other member states brought forward their starting date by one week while we postponed ours by one week. The new arrangements were given effect by the Summer Time Order 1980 for an initial period of two years. These arrangements appear to have worked well, and the purpose of the present order is to extend them, for a further three years, to 1983, 1984 and 1985.

Turning to the ending date for summer time, your Lordships may recall that during the debate on the Summer Time Order 1980, my noble friend Lord Belstead explained the difficulty about changing our existing arrangements. At present, summer time in this country ends on the day after the fourth Saturday in October whereas in other member states it finishes at the end of September. The Government do not believe that the British people would wish the finishing date to be brought forward in line with our Community partners. Our experience is that people prefer to have the light evenings to enjoy sporting and other leisure activities.

Various possible compromise solutions have been examined, but it has not been possible to reach agreement on a common finishing date for summer time. Member states have accepted therefore that, for the time being, each country should retain its present finishing date. Your Lordships may be intrigued to learn that, for this purpose, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland are for the next three years to be regarded nominally as a maritime zone for this purpose and that other member states are to be regarded as a continental zone.

I do not wish to take up more of your Lordships' time than necessary, but it may be helpful if I comment briefly on the text of the draft order. Article 1(2) provides that it shall have effect in the United Kingdom and the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Jersey and the Isle of Man propose to follow suit, but they are not provided for in this order because they have their own legislation on the subject. Articles 2, 3 and 4 provide for the proposed starting dates of 27th March 1983, 25th March 1984 and 31st March 1985. The finishing dates provided for in each article are those which would occur through the ordinary operation of the 1972 Act. The change-over time of 1 a.m. in the Summer Time Order 1980 is retained. This is to ensure that summer time starts at the same time throughout the European Community. The draft order does no more than continue existing arrangements for a further three years. My Lords, I beg to move.

Moved, That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty praying that the Summer Time Order 1982 be made in the form of the draft laid before the House on 14th October.—(Lord Glenarthur.)

Lord Bishopston

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Glenarthur, for his introduction of this timely measure. In debating a Summer Time Order we should recognise that there are dangers of being misunderstood if we use such terms as may apply to other measures which come before your Lordships' House, such as "putting the clock back", which I am sure does not apply in this case; in fact, with the concessions we have, I suppose we can say that time is on our side. In the meantime, we shall have to take care.

The noble Lord has made mention of the EEC's views on this and clearly the time has come for the Community to adopt a uniform summer time arrangement on a permanent basis. There has been what has been called a reasonable compromise between the preferences of certain member states which involve marginal adjustments to their present positions. As the noble Lord has said, this order is an extension of the Summer Time Order 1980 and we must be pleased that the arrangement will continue for a further three years.

I note that the subject of summer time was a topic of detailed examination by the Select Committee of the European Communities Third Report of the Session 1981–82, and I am sure your Lordships are indebted to the Select Committee for the careful consideration they gave to the evidence submitted. With increasing travel and communications between member states there are advantages in uniformity of timing and dates, especially for transport, and for air transport in particular, in terms of cost and convenience. These matters are of consequence to many interests including road safety, communications, travel, agriculture and leisure and it would be helpful to your Lordships, I am sure, if we could know what consultations have taken place with the various interests concerned. There are of course great merits in everyone knowing well in advance what arrangements there are for the years ahead and this order will help us in that particular respect.

Lord Glenarthur

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Bishopston, for his welcome to this order. So far as consultations which have taken place are concerned, these are set out in the Review of British Standard Time, which is Cmnd. 4512 issued in October 1970. The consultations which took place were very wide indeed and the result is that we have been able to achieve a compromise at least on the starting date. I hope that in due course it will be possible to achieve something on the finishing date, but it will be some time before we are able to achieve that. The Government are fully aware that transport undertakings in particular are very much affected by the various time differences, and all we are doing is in many ways designed to mitigate the problems which they might produce.

On Question, Motion agreed to: the said Address to be presented to Her Majesty by the Lords with White Staves.