British Time Harmonisation

Earl of Erroll Excerpts

Wednesday 11th July 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord De Mauley]

I think that I would, my Lords. On the subject of trade, it seems likely that there could be benefits for some businesses that trade with European states particularly that are not in our time zone, and indeed with other parts of the world further east. There could also be some losers from the trade perspective. One of our most important EU trading partners, the Republic of Ireland, shares our time zone, of course, so a rigorous analysis of all the overall impacts would be needed before any conclusions could be formed.

[The Earl of Erroll]

Does the Minister agree that the people who trade with Europe could get up an hour earlier, and that this would spread the load on the transport infrastructure and create less congestion on the trains and the road network? The more that we can spread start times at work, the better it will be. There is a lot of merit in that.

[Lord De Mauley]

My Lords, the point about that is that people who trade with Europe are already getting up an hour earlier.