Open Sundays calls for government to abolish archaic Sunday trading laws to help retailers recover from Covid-19 crash

The campaign group promoting greater liberalisation of the Sunday trading laws has called upon the Government to abolish the current Sunday trading restrictions, as part of a broader package of deregulation to help retailers recover from the impact of Covid-19.

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

“Longer Sunday opening hours have become part of the response for some large food stores during the Covid-19 crisis, but there has been no change in the law. When the restrictions on social distancing are lifted, many people will see the reversion to strict observance of Sunday opening hours as reinforcing an absurd legal position.

“The economic revival will depend on as much facilitation of trade as possible. The high street needs all the help it can get. Alongside other measures to boost retail, the abolition of England & Wales’s Sunday laws will give our retailers shot in the arm they will need to lead the country out of recession.

“The last time the restrictions on Sunday opening were lifted was in 2012 for the London Olympics, when Boris Johnson was Mayor of London. It would be great for the shops to be open for the many sporting events, including the Olympics and European Football Championships, which have been postponed to 2021 and will take place on Sundays next year.”

It was proposed in the July 2015 Budget that the Sunday trading laws in England and Wales might be relaxed and shops over 280 m2 (3,000 sq ft) be able to open longer. However, this proposal was defeated in the House of Commons in March 2016 following a rebellion by a handful of Conservative MPs in alliance with Labour and the Scottish Nationalist Party, despite Sunday trading being legal in Scotland for shops of all sizes.