The UK's one time zone: Europe/London

The entire United Kingdom uses the IANA time zone Europe/London. There is no separate zone for Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland. Time is a reserved matter for the UK Parliament at Westminster; devolved administrations cannot set their own clocks.

That means the westernmost point of the UK (Belleek, County Fermanagh) and the easternmost (Lowestoft, Suffolk) show the same time on the wall clock, even though their solar times differ by about 32 minutes because of the 8° of longitude between them. If the UK used solar time, sunrise in Belleek would happen half an hour later than in Lowestoft. It does not, because the whole country shares one clock.

GMT in winter, BST in the warmer months

The UK uses two time offsets, tied to the calendar:

  • Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), offset UTC+0, from the last Sunday in October to the last Sunday in March.
  • British Summer Time (BST), offset UTC+1, from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.

In 2026, the change dates are:

Event Date Local time
BST starts (clocks forward) Sunday 29 March 01:00 GMT → 02:00 BST
BST ends (clocks back) Sunday 25 October 02:00 BST → 01:00 GMT

In 2027:

Event Date Local time
BST starts Sunday 28 March 01:00 GMT → 02:00 BST
BST ends Sunday 31 October 02:00 BST → 01:00 GMT

The clock change always happens at 01:00 UTC, after pubs have closed and before most rail services start. Trains running at that hour are held or re-timed.

During BST, London is on UTC+1. During GMT, it is on UTC+0. For the current time in London, visit the Time in London page.

Does the UK have multiple time zones like the US?

No. The United States spans six time zones. The United Kingdom, despite including Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, uses exactly one. The answer to "Does Scotland have a different time zone to England?" is no. The same is true for Wales and Northern Ireland. For a full explanation, see Does Scotland Have a Different Time Zone to England?

Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories: who follows UK time?

The Crown Dependencies (the Isle of Man, Jersey, and Guernsey) are not part of the United Kingdom. They are self-governing possessions of the Crown. However, they follow UK time: GMT in winter, BST in the warmer months. They adopt the same clock change dates.

The British Overseas Territories are different. They have their own time zones. Bermuda uses Atlantic/Bermuda. The Falkland Islands use Atlantic/Stanley. The British Indian Ocean Territory uses Indian/Chagos. None of them follow the UK's DST rules.

The IANA time zone: what 'Europe/London' means for developers

For software developers, the UK's single IANA identifier is Europe/London. This identifier is used in programming languages, operating systems, and databases. It encodes both the current rules (GMT in winter, BST in the warmer months) and the historical record, including periods when the UK used British Double Summer Time (BDST, UTC+2) during World War II.

When storing future events, store them in UTC. Convert to local time using the Europe/London zone. Do not hard-code a fixed offset: the offset changes twice a year. Do not assume the UK is always UTC+0.

UK vs WET, CET, and other European zones

The UK's time offsets are shared by several other places, but with important naming differences:

  • Portugal uses Western European Time (WET, UTC+0) in winter and Western European Summer Time (WEST, UTC+1) in the warmer months. Same clock as the UK.
  • Ireland uses GMT in winter and Irish Standard Time (IST, UTC+1) in the warmer months. Same clock as the UK, different name.
  • Iceland uses GMT (UTC+0) all year. No DST. The UK matches Iceland only in winter.
  • Central European Time (CET) is UTC+1 in winter, UTC+2 in the warmer months. The UK is always one hour behind CET/CEST.
  • Morocco uses UTC+1 year-round, except during Ramadan when it reverts to UTC+0. The UK matches Morocco only in the warmer months.

For a full list, see What Countries Share the Same Time Zone as the UK?

UK time vs major cities: winter and the warmer months

The table below shows the time difference from London on two reference dates: 15 January 2026 (GMT) and 15 July 2026 (BST). A positive number means the city is ahead of London; a negative number means it is behind.

City Offset from London (GMT, January) Offset from London (BST, July)
New York -5 hours -5 hours
Los Angeles -8 hours -8 hours
Chicago -6 hours -6 hours
São Paulo -3 hours -4 hours
Paris +1 hour +1 hour
Johannesburg +2 hours +1 hour
Dubai +4 hours +3 hours
Mumbai +5.5 hours +4.5 hours
Singapore +8 hours +7 hours
Tokyo +9 hours +8 hours
Sydney +11 hours +9 hours

Some offsets change between winter and the warmer months because the other city also observes DST, but on different dates. New York is 5 hours behind London in both January and July, but for different reasons: in January London is on GMT and New York on EST (UTC-5); in July London is on BST and New York on EDT (UTC-4). The difference happens to be the same.