The clocks go back on Sunday: what changes at home, and the £1,000 dog-coat fine that isn't

When the clocks change

The clocks go back one hour at 2am on the last Sunday in October, which this year is Sunday 25 October, according to GOV.UK. At 2am British Summer Time the time becomes 1am Greenwich Mean Time, so the hour from 1am to 2am happens twice. It applies across the UK.

It means an extra hour in bed on Sunday morning and lighter mornings for a while, but it gets dark an hour earlier by the clock from Sunday evening. Any time you see given for Sunday, including weather warnings, is in GMT.

The £1,000 dog-coat headline: what's true

This week a story ran under the headline “Aldi's Neon Dog Coat helps avoid £1,000 fines” (britbrief.co.uk, 19 October; the headline also gives the coat's price). The coat is a reflective dog coat pitched at darker evening walks after the clocks go back.

No UK law requires a dog to wear a hi-vis or reflective coat, and the article itself says as much. Wearing one does not protect you from any fine, and no national law fines you for not using one.

The £1,000 comes from a different rule. In England and Wales, councils can make Public Spaces Protection Orders that set local dog rules, such as picking up after your dog or keeping it on a lead in a park. Under the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, breaking one is an offence with a maximum fine in court of level 3 on the standard scale, which is £1,000. An on-the-spot fixed penalty is capped at £100 in that Act.

The Crime and Policing Act 2026 will raise that on-the-spot ceiling to £500 once the change comes into force, the Home Office says; legislation.gov.uk still shows £100. Its factsheet, updated on 30 September, gives no start date and says the measures will be brought in “as soon as practicable”, and each council sets its own amount. None of these fines have anything to do with the clocks or with what a dog wears.

The rule that really changes with the dark: car lights

For drivers, the darker evenings bring the lighting rules into play earlier in the day. In Great Britain, Highway Code rule 113 says you must have your sidelights and rear number-plate lights on between sunset and sunrise, and you must use headlights at night on roads without lit street lights, and whenever visibility is seriously reduced. Night, for this rule, runs from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise.

Rule 115 adds that you should use dipped headlights at night in built-up areas and in dull daytime weather, so that you can be seen. If you walk, cycle or walk a dog on unlit roads after work, something light or reflective helps drivers see you sooner, which is the sensible part of the coat story.

What to change at home

Phones, tablets, computers and smart thermostats that are set to update the time automatically will change themselves overnight. Anything with its own clock will not: mechanical heating and hot water timers, oven and microwave clocks, many car clocks, and some bedside alarm clocks.

The one that matters most is the heating. A timer left on summer time will run an hour early by the new clock, so the heating comes on at 5am instead of 6am, for example. If you're not sure how your programmer works, the manual or the manufacturer's website will show you.

Test your smoke alarms on Sunday

The clock change is a handy reminder to test smoke alarms. The government's fire safety guidance says to test your smoke alarms at least monthly and to fit at least one on every level of your home.

It also says a ten-year alarm should be replaced as a whole unit every ten years, and an alarm with a one-year battery needs a new battery every year. If an alarm doesn't sound when you press the test button, replace the battery (or, for a sealed ten-year alarm, the whole alarm). Our guide to what to do in a house fire covers escape plans, and if you have a gas boiler or fire, read the signs of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Storm Boelo runs through the change

The clock change falls in the middle of the Met Office's weekend wind warnings for Storm Boelo. The yellow warning for Scotland and parts of northern England runs from 6pm on Saturday to 9pm on Sunday, and the one for Northern Ireland from 6pm on Saturday to 3pm on Sunday; the Sunday times are GMT.

If you are in the warning areas, it's worth checking your torches and charging power banks on Saturday, while it is still light. Our power cut preparation guide has the full list.