Sunday Trading Act 1994

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The Sunday Trading Act 1994 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom governing the right of shops in England and Wales to trade on a Sunday. Buying and selling on Sunday had previously been illegal, with exceptions, under the Shops Act 1950.

Following the defeat of a bill to enable widespread Sunday trading in April 1986, compromise legislation was introduced in July 1994 in England and Wales, coming into force on 28 August 1994, allowing shops to open, but restricting opening times of larger stores i.e. those over 280 m² (3,014 sq ft) to a maximum of six hours, between 10am and 6pm only. Large retail park shops usually open 11am-5pm, with supermarkets more usually choosing 10am-4pm. In central London, for example on Oxford Street, many shops choose to open from midday to 6pm.

Shops in Scotland, where Sunday trading was already fully deregulated, retained the right to open at any time. However the right for workers in Scotland to refuse to work on a Sunday was later conferred by the Sunday Working (Scotland) Act 2003. Northern Ireland has separate laws governing Sunday opening.

The Sunday Trading Bill had met with considerable opposition from the Lord's Day Observance Society and other groups such as the Christian Keep Sunday Special and the shopworkers' trade union USDAW. However USDAW finally agreed to support 6 hour Sunday trading in return for a promise that Sunday working would be strictly voluntary and premium pay would be offered. This decision played an important role in encouraging many Labour MPs to back the bill in a free vote-without this it would almost certainly have failed.

See also

• Sunday trading
• Blue law (US and Canada)
• Sabbatarianism

External links

• The Sunday Trading Act