Boris told to end Sunday shopping rip-off

On 25th anniversary of Sunday trading laws, campaign group Open Sundays calls for new era of consumer choice and lower prices

25 years on from the Sunday Trading Act 1994, campaign group Open Sundays is calling for the lifting of restrictions on the opening hours of large shops and garden centres, so they can open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days of the year.

Adrian Pepper, co-founder of the Open Sundays campaign said:

“During the Olympics, the Government was so embarrassed by these archaic laws that they were suspended for an eight-week period. Visitors, tourists and British citizens were free to shop at a time of their choice, with no harmful side-effects.

“Boris Johnson was instrumental in showing that the pilot scheme of suspending the Sunday trading restrictions could work. Now he needs to make permanent changes to the law, so that English and Welsh citizens have the same rights as those in Scotland, where Sunday trading is 24/7 in all shops.”

Open Sundays says this simple reform would:

- end the price rip-off on Sundays. “Research by Open Sundays has shown shoppers pay significantly more for the same products in small format stores compared to the larger supermarkets,” says Adrian Pepper.

- make life more convenient for everyone. “Society has changed massively from the 1990s never mind the 1950s. The current Sunday trading laws do not preserve any valuable cultural aspects of our way of life. Surely people should be allowed to buy fresh produce for their Sunday lunch.”

- bring in more tourism spend. “If we are to compete with Paris, New York and Beijing, then post-Brexit Britain had better be open for business.”

- help the high street catch up with online retail. “It is bizarre that you can currently take delivery of your online shopping at 9am on a Sunday but you cannot visit a store to buy the same goods”.

support people who work full time. “It is now the norm for adults in most families to be in full time work so the only time they can shop is at the weekend.”

enable more people to go to church. “As things stand, if you want to go to church on a Sunday morning, there is hardly any time to get the shopping done.“