This is when British Summer Time begins, what it means and why it happens

During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the UK is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from midnight to 1am.

This means that mornings have one hour less daylight, and evenings one hour more.

BST begins at 01:00 GMT every year on the last Sunday of March and ends at 01:00 GMT (02:00 BST) on the last Sunday of October.

British Summer Time, otherwise known as daylight saving time, was originally devised to keep factories open for longer in the summer – since there was enough light to do so. It has also been suggested that BST reduces energy consumption.

During the Second World War, British Double Summer Time - two hours in advance of GMT- was temporarily introduced for when ordinary daylight saving would be in force. During the winter, clocks were kept one hour in advance to increase productivity.