When do clocks go back for winter? What time and date?

It’s that time of year again when the clocks go back for winter, gifting people an extra hour in bed.

When do the clocks go back?

The clocks already changed at 2am last week in the UK, but will be changing on Sunday 5 November for the US, going back by one hour.

Why do the clocks go back?

Changing the clocks began over 100 years ago after the British Government passed the Summer Time Act in 1916, during the First World War.

It followed years of campaigning by builder William Willett who published a leaflet called “The Waste of Daylight”, and argued that moving the clocks back in the summer would save on energy costs and give people longer to enjoy outdoors. He was also a keen golfer and disliked the affect that sun-down had on his games in the summer by cutting them short.

Daylight saving time was eventually introduced by the Government the year after Mr Willett died, in a bid to save fuel during the war.

When will the clocks go forward again?

The clocks will go forward by an hour on Sunday 25 March 2018 in the UK (Sunday March 11 if you're in the US), when the country reverts again to British Summer Time (BST), when there is less light in the mornings and more in the evenings.

Where else uses Daylight Saving Time (DST)?

The majority of the world does not use DST – 65 per cent of countries do not use this method, which means 80 per cent of the world’s population does not change its clocks, according to the BBC.

The majority of countries in Europe use it apart from Belarus, Iceland, Georgia and Armenia, and the whole of the United States employs DST apart from Hawaii and part of Arizona.