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Lighter Evenings (Experiment) Bill [HL]

Indeed, my Lords, I take the noble Lord’s point. I shall come to that. Is there any scope for moving to some degree towards the state of affairs to which the noble Lord, Lord Tanlaw, the noble Baroness, Lady Billingham, and others aspire? I think that there is. We can surely all agree that a switch to Central European Time would benefit almost no one in the months of December and January, when most people would still finish work after dark and it is too cold for most non-professional outdoor sports. Lighter evenings would be beneficial in November and the first three weeks of March. Would it not therefore be an excellent idea to try to secure agreement that summer time, being the equivalent of Benjamin Franklin’s excellent Daylight Saving Time, should start not later than the second Sunday in March, or possibly earlier, and finish on the first or second Sunday in November—ideally, in conjunction with neighbouring countries, for the sake of simplifying airline schedules? Obviously, such agreement could not be achieved overnight—it might take two or three years to secure—but other steps could be implemented much more rapidly. It is clear that Britons tend to start and finish work much later than our continental cousins. I have read that in Norway many offices work from 7 am to 2 pm with only a very short break of 20 or 30 minutes for lunch, so that workers can get out into the open air at two o’clock—on to nearby ski slopes in winter or into their boats or on to hiking trials in summer. If those factories and offices that do not already permit flexi-time were to do so, or to agree to start and finish work an hour earlier than they do at present, with schools following suit and shops subsequently obliged to do so for commercial reasons, there would be much greater scope for people to get out after work on to those playing fields that have not already been sold off. That would not require legislation. Even altering school hours would not require legislation from Westminster. Speaking of schools, I seem distantly to remember schools having different timetables in summer and winter. As the noble Lord, Lord Tanlaw, was at the same educational establishment as me and may well have a better memory, he can probably confirm that. Let us first explore the voluntary, non-legislative avenue of starting work a bit earlier and, of course, finishing earlier, rather than starting to pretend that Britain is located in Mitteleuropa.