Time in the United Kingdom - wikipedia Time in the United Kingdom Time in Europe : light blue Western European Time / Greenwich Mean Time ( UTC ) blue Western European Time / Greenwich Mean Time ( UTC ) Western European Summer Time / British Summer Time / Irish Standard Time ( UTC + 1 ) red Central European Time ( UTC + 1 ) Central European Summer Time ( UTC + 2 ) yellow Eastern European Time / Kaliningrad Time ( UTC + 2 ) golden Eastern European Time ( UTC + 2 ) Eastern European Summer Time ( UTC + 3 ) light green Further - eastern European Time / Moscow Time / Turkey Time ( UTC + 3 ) Light colours indicate where standard time is observed all year ; dark colours indicate where a summer time is observed. The United Kingdom uses Greenwich Mean Time or Western European Time ( UTC ) and British Summer Time or Western European Summer Time ( UTC + 01 : 00 ). Contents 1 History 2 Experimentations with Central European Time 3 Devolution 4 IANA time zone database 5 British territories 6 See also 7 References 8 External links History Until the advent of the railways, the United Kingdom used Local Mean Time. Greenwich Mean Time was adopted first by the Great Western Railway in 1840 and a few others followed suit in the following years. In 1847 it was adopted by the Railway Clearing House, and by almost all railway companies by the following year. It was from this initiative that the term `` railway time '' was derived. It was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held `` local mean time '' to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a letter signed by ' Clerk to Justices ' appeared in ' The Times ', stating that ' Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England, but it appears that Greenwich time is not legal time. This was changed later in 1880, when Greenwich Mean Time was legally adopted throughout the island of Great Britain under the Statutes ( Definition of Time ) Act 1880 ( 43 & 44 Vict. ). GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time. Daylight saving time was introduced by the Summer Time Act 1916 ( 6 & 7 Geo. V ), which was implemented in 1916 as GMT plus one hour and Dublin Mean Time plus one hour. The length of DST could be extended by Order in Council, and was extended for the duration of World War I. For 1916, DST extended from 21 May to 1 October, with transitions at 02 : 00 standard time. On 1 October 1916, Greenwich Mean Time was introduced to Ireland. At the beginning of the 20th century, Sandringham Time ( UTC + 00 : 30 ) was used by the royal household. This practice was halted by King Edward VIII, in an effort to reduce confusions over time. The dates of British Summer Time are the subject of the Summer Time Act 1972. From 1972 to 1980, the day following the 3rd Saturday in March was the start of British Summer Time ( unless that day was Easter Sunday, in which case BST began a week earlier ), with the day following the 4th Sunday in October being the end of British Summer Time. From 1981 to 2001, the dates were set in line with various European Directives. Since 2002 the Act has specified the last Sunday in March as the start of British Summer Time with the last Sunday in October being end of British Summer Time. Since 1998 the start and end date are the same in both the United Kingdom and the rest of the European Union. Experimentations with Central European Time The United Kingdom experimentally adopted Central European Time by maintaining Summer Time throughout the year from 1968 to 1971. In a House of Lords debate, Richard Butler, 17th Viscount Mountgarret said that the change was welcomed at the time, but the experiment was eventually halted after a debate in 1971, in which the outcome might have been influenced by a major accident on the morning of the debate. Proposals to adopt CET have been raised by various politicians over the years, including a proposal in 2011 to conduct an analysis of the costs and benefits. Devolution Authority over the time zone in Northern Ireland is devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly but the power has never been used. In Scotland and Wales, time zone is a reserved matter, meaning that only the Parliament of the United Kingdom has power to legislate. IANA Time zone database The IANA time zone database contains one zone for the United Kingdom in the file zone. tab, named Europe / London. This refers to the area having the ISO 3166 - 1 alpha - 2 country code `` GB ''. The zone names Europe / Guernsey, Europe / Isle_of_Man and Europe / Jersey exist because they have their own ISO 3166 - 1 alpha - 2 but the zone. tab entries are links to Europe / London. There are several entries for UK possessions around the world. Data directly from zone. tab of the IANA time zone database. Columns marked with * are the columns from zone. tab itself. c.c. * Coordinates * TZ * Comments * UTC offset UTC DST offset GB + 513030 - 0000731 Europe / London + 00 : 00 + 01 : 00 GI + 3608 - 00521 Europe / Gibraltar + 01 : 00 + 02 : 00 GG + 4927 - 00232 Europe / Guernsey + 00 : 00 + 01 : 00 IM + 5409 - 00428 Europe / Isle_of_Man + 00 : 00 + 01 : 00 JE + 4912 - 00207 Europe / Jersey + 00 : 00 + 01 : 00 AI + 1812 - 06304 America / Anguilla − 04 : 00 − 04 : 00 MS + 1643 - 06213 America / Montserrat − 04 : 00 − 04 : 00 TC + 2128 - 07108 America / Grand_Turk − 05 : 00 − 04 : 00 AQ - 6734 - 06808 Antarctica / Rothera Rothera Station, Adelaide Island − 03 : 00 − 03 : 00 BM + 3217 - 06446 Atlantic / Bermuda − 04 : 00 − 03 : 00 GS - 5416 - 03632 Atlantic / South_Georgia − 02 : 00 − 02 : 00 SH - 1555 - 00542 Atlantic / St_Helena + 00 : 00 + 00 : 00 FK - 5142 - 05751 Atlantic / Stanley − 03 : 00 − 03 : 00 IO - 0720 + 07225 Indian / Chagos + 06 : 00 + 06 : 00 PN - 2504 - 13005 Pacific / Pitcairn − 08 : 00 − 08 : 00 British territories UTC − 08 : 00 -- Pitcairn Islands UTC − 05 : 00 -- Cayman Islands UTC − 04 : 00 ( AST when DST is not in effect ) -- Bermuda UTC − 04 : 00 ( AST, DST never observed ) -- Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands UTC − 03 : 00 ( AST when DST is in effect ) -- Bermuda, ( FKST ) -- Falkland Islands UTC − 02 : 00 -- South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands UTC ( GMT when DST not in effect ) -- The United Kingdom ( England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland ), Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey UTC ( GMT, DST never observed ) -- Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha UTC + 01 : 00 ( British Summer time when DST is in effect ) -- The United Kingdom ( England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland ), Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, ( CET when DST not in effect ) -- Gibraltar UTC + 02 : 00 ( when DST not in effect ) Gibraltar, ( EET when DST is not in effect ) -- Akrotiri and Dhekelia UTC + 03 : 00 ( EET when DST is in effect ) -- Akrotiri and Dhekelia UTC + 06 : 00 -- British Indian Ocean Territory See also List of time zones References Jump up ^ Howse 1997, p. 114 Jump up ^ CLERK TO JUSTICES. `` Time, Actual And Legal ''. Times, London, England, 14 May 1880 : 10. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 18 Aug. 2015. Jump up ^ Bartky, Ian R. ( 2007 ). One Time Fits All : The Campaigns for Global Uniformity. Stanford University Press. p. 134. ISBN 0804756422. Retrieved 18 August 2015. ^ Jump up to : Myers J ( 5 October 2008 ). `` History of legal time in Britain ''. Retrieved 15 July 2009. Jump up ^ `` Summer Time Act 1972 ''. The National Archives. Jump up ^ Joseph Myers ( 21 January 2007 ). `` History of legal time in Britain ''. Retrieved 24 March 2007. Jump up ^ `` Directive 2000 / 84 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 January 2001 on summer time arrangement ''. ^ Jump up to : `` Fresh attempt to change UK time ''. BBC News. 25 January 2007. Retrieved 19 January 2010. Jump up ^ `` Central European Time Bill ( H.L. ) HL Deb 11 January 1995 vol 560 cc243 - 84 ''. Hansard. 1995. Retrieved 19 January 2010. Jump up ^ `` Tundra time call in clocks debate ''. BBC News. 23 October 2009. Retrieved 19 January 2010. Jump up ^ `` Plan to bring UK clocks forward ''. BBC News. 20 February 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2011. Jump up ^ The Role of the Advocate General and its constitutional context, Office of the Advocate General of Scotland, speech delivered 18 March 2011, retrieved 1 January 2014, `` For example, the Northern Ireland Assembly has the legislative competence to deal with time zones. '' External links Archive of Summer time dates from the National Physical Laboratory Time in Europe Sovereign states Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Georgia Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Ireland Italy Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine United Kingdom States with limited recognition Abkhazia Artsakh Northern Cyprus South Ossetia Transnistria Dependencies and other entities Åland Faroe Islands Gibraltar Guernsey Isle of Man Jersey Svalbard Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Time_in_the_United_Kingdom&oldid=866014512 '' Categories : Time in the United Kingdom Hidden categories : Use British English from December 2010 Use dmy dates from December 2010 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Русский Українська Edit links This page was last edited on 27 October 2018, at 18 : 18 ( UTC ). 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Question: what is the uk time zone in utc
Answer: UTC