Daylight saving time: When do the clocks go back?

Don't forget the extra hour

THE clocks go back by one hour on Sunday, October 25, at 2am - that means the minute after 1.59am will be 1am again.

The clocks go back to give us an extra hour of daylight in autumn and winter.

The time change always happens on the last Sunday of October in the middle of the night and on a weekend, to cause least disruption.

Similarly, the clocks go forward on the last Sunday of March each year.

The period when the clocks are one hour ahead is called British Summer Time (BST) and when the clocks go back it is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

The idea was first thought up by Benjamin Franklin in 1874 when he thought it would encourage people to get up earlier in the mornings. The UK government adopted the practice in 1916, following a campaign by builder William Willett who wrote about it in a pamphlet entitled Waste of Daylight.