England and Wales
Sunday trading in England and Wales was not generally permitted until 1994. This meant that shops such as department stores and supermarkets were not able to open legally. A number of specialist outlets were able to open legally, including garden centres, small "corner" or family-run shops, and chemists.
An earlier attempt by Margaret Thatcher's government to allow Sunday shopping in 1986 was defeated in Parliament, with opposition coming from Conservative MPs who saw it as a threat to family life and church attendance, and Labour MPs who were concerned about workers' rights. This led to the formation of the Keep Sunday Special campaign, backed by church groups and USDAW, the trade union representing shop workers.
Several large retailers challenged the legal ruling in force before 1994 by opening on Sundays (or simply ignored them, since the fines were far lower than their Sunday profits), and the outcome was that the Sunday Trading Act 1994 permitted large shops (those with a relevant floor area in excess of 280 square metres) to open for up to six hours on Sunday between the hours of 10 am and 6 pm. Small shops, those with an area of below 280 square metres, are free to set their own Sunday trading times.
However, some large shops, such as off-licenses, service stations and garages, are exempt from the restrictions. Christmas Day and Easter Sunday have been excluded as trading days. This applies even to garden centres, which earlier had been trading over Easter, but not to small shops (those with an area of below 280 square metres). In 2006, the government considered further relaxation of the permitted hours of business but decided that there was no consensus for change, although a popular poll indicated differently. Some local councils require a trader to give notice before trading on Sundays, but they cannot refuse permission; so most councils no longer even require notice.
Since the 1994 Act allowed stores to open, stores seem to keep to it meticulously, perhaps more so than before when they were flagrantly breaching the law by opening at all. However, there is a tendency to open half an hour earlier but not allow sales before the allotted time, to allow people to "browse" and thus effectively extend the opening hours of the store without breaking the law. For example in Birmingham in 2005 several stores opened seven hours, 10.30am-5.30 pm, but would not have been able to sell throughout that time without breaking the law.
In 2012, Emergency Legislation was passed stipulating that Sunday Trading Laws (Sunday Trading Act 1994) will be suspended by the government on eight weekends from 22 July during the Olympics and Paralympics.
Read more about this topic: Sunday Shopping, Sunday Shopping By Continent, Europe, European Union
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