Sunday Trading Act 1994

Reform of law relating to Sunday trading.

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• (1) Schedules 1 and 2 to this Act shall come into force on such day as the Secretary of State may by order made by statutory instrument appoint (in this section referred to as “the appointed day”).

• (2) Sections 47 to 66 of, and Schedules 5, 6 and 7 to, the Shops Act 1950 shall cease to have effect on the appointed day.

Loading and unloading at large shops on Sunday morning.

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• (1) A local authority may by resolution designate their area as a loading control area for the purposes of this section with effect from a date specified in the resolution, which must be a date at least one month after the date on which the resolution is passed.

• (2) A local authority may by resolution revoke any designation made by them under subsection (1) above.

• (3) It shall be the duty of a local authority, before making or revoking any designation under subsection (1) above, to consult persons appearing to the local authority to be likely to be affected by the proposed designation or revocation (whether as the occupiers of shops or as local residents) or persons appearing to the local authority to represent such persons.

• (4) Where a local authority make or revoke a designation under this section, they shall publish notice of the designation or revocation in such manner as they consider appropriate.

• (5) Schedule 3 to this Act (which imposes restrictions on loading and unloading on Sunday before 9 a.m. at large shops in loading control areas) shall have effect.

Construction of certain leases and agreements.

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• (1) Where any lease or agreement (however worded) entered into before the commencement of this section has the effect of requiring the occupier of a shop to keep the shop open for the serving of retail customers—

• (a) during normal business hours, or

• (b) during hours to be determined otherwise than by or with the consent of the occupier,

that lease or agreement shall not be regarded as requiring, or as enabling any person to require, the occupier to open the shop on Sunday for the serving of retail customers.

• (2) Subsection (1) above shall not affect any lease or agreement—

• (a) to the extent that it relates specifically to Sunday and would (apart from this section) have the effect of requiring Sunday trading of a kind which before the commencement of this section would have been lawful by virtue of any provision of Part IV of the Shops Act 1950, or

• (b) to the extent that it is varied by agreement after the commencement of this section.

• (3) In this section “retail customer” and “shop” have the same meaning as in Schedule 1 to this Act.

Rights of shop workers as respects Sunday working.

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Schedule 4 to this Act shall have effect.

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Consequential repeal or amendment of local Acts.

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• (1) The Secretary of State may by order made by statutory instrument—

• (a) repeal any provision of a local Act passed before or in the same Session as this Act if it appears to him that the provision is inconsistent with or has become unnecessary in consequence of any provision of this Act, and

• (b) amend any provision of such a local Act if it appears to him that the provision requires amendment in consequence of any provision of this Act or any repeal made by virtue of paragraph (a) above.

• (2) It shall be the duty of the Secretary of State, before he makes an order under subsection (1) above repealing or amending any provision of a local Act, to consult each local authority which he considers would be affected by the repeal or amendment of that provision.

• (3) A statutory instrument containing an order under subsection (1) above shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.

Expenses.

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There shall be paid out of money provided by Parliament any increase attributable to this Act in the sums payable out of such money under any other Act.

Meaning of “local authority”.

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• (1) In this Act “local authority” means any unitary authority or any district council so far as they are not a unitary authority.

• (2) In subsection (1) above “unitary authority” means—

• (a) the council of any county so far as they are the council for an area for which there are no district councils,

• (b) the council of any district comprised in an area for which there is no county council,

• (c) a county borough council,

• (d) a London borough council,

• (e) the Common Council of the City of London, or

• (f) the Council of the Isles of Scilly.

• (3) Until 1st April 1996, the definition of “unitary authority” in subsection (2) above shall have effect with the omission of paragraph (c).

Short title, repeals, commencement and extent.

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• (1) This Act may be cited as the Sunday Trading Act 1994.

• (2) The enactments mentioned in Schedule 5 to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule.

• (3) The following provisions of this Act—

• sections 2 to 5,

• subsection (2) of this section, and

• Schedules 3, 4 and 5,

shall not come into force until the appointed day (as defined in section 1 above).

• (4) This Act extends to England and Wales only.

SCHEDULE 1

Interpretation

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In this Schedule—

• “ alcohol ” has the same meaning as in the Licensing Act 2003,

• “large shop” means a shop which has a relevant floor area exceeding 280 square metres,

• “medicinal product” and “registered pharmacy” have the same meaning as in the Medicines Act1968,

• “relevant floor area”, in relation to a shop, means the internal floor area of so much of the shop as consists of or is comprised in a building, but excluding any part of the shop which, throughout the week ending with the Sunday in question, is used neither for the serving of customers in connection with the sale of goods nor for the display of goods,

• “retail customer” means a person who purchases goods retail,

• “retail sale” means any sale other than a sale for use or resale in the course of a trade or business, and references to retail purchase shall be construed accordingly,

• “sale of goods” does not include—the sale of meals, refreshments or alcohol for consumption on the premises on which they are sold, orthe sale of meals or refreshments prepared to order for immediate consumption off those premises,

• “shop” means any premises where there is carried on a trade or business consisting wholly or mainly of the sale of goods, and

• “stand”, in relation to an exhibition, means any platform, structure, space or other area provided for exhibition purposes.

• “ veterinary medicinal product ” has the same meaning as in regulation 2 of the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2006.

Restrictions on Sunday opening hours of large shops

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• (1) Subject to sub-paragraphs (2) and (3) below, a large shop shall not be open on Sunday for the serving of retail customers.

• (2) Sub-paragraph (1) above does not apply in relation to—

• (a) any of the shops mentioned in paragraph 3(1) below, or

• (b) any shop in respect of which a notice under paragraph 8(1) of Schedule 2 to this Act (shops occupied by persons observing the Jewish Sabbath) has effect.

• (3) Sub-paragraph (1) above does not apply in relation to the opening of a large shop during any continuous period of six hours on a Sunday beginning no earlier than 10 am and ending no later than 6 pm, but this sub-paragraph has effect subject to sub-paragraph (4) below.

• (4) The exemption conferred by sub-paragraph (3) above does not apply where the Sunday is Easter Day ....

• (5) Nothing in this paragraph applies where the Sunday is Christmas Day (the opening of large shops on Christmas Day being prohibited by section 1 of the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004).

Exemptions

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• (1) The shops referred to in paragraph 2(2)(a) above are—

• (a) any shop which is at a farm and where the trade or business carried on consists wholly or mainly of the sale of produce from that farm,

• (b) any shop where the trade or business carried on consists wholly or mainly of the sale of alcohol,

• (c) any shop where the trade or business carried on consists wholly or mainly of the sale of any one or more of the following—

• (i) motor supplies and accessories, and

• (ii) cycle supplies and accessories,

• (d) any shop which—

• (i) is a registered pharmacy, and

• (ii) is not open for the retail sale of any goods other than medicinal products, veterinary medicinal products and medical and surgical appliances,

• (e) any shop at a designated airport which is situated in a part of the airport to which sub-paragraph (3) below applies,

• (f) any shop in a railway station,

• (g) any shop at a service area within the meaning of the Highways Act1980,

• (h) any petrol filling station,

• (j) any shop which is not open for the retail sale of any goods other than food, stores or other necessaries required by any person for a vessel or aircraft on its arrival at, or immediately before its departure from, a port, harbour or airport, and

• (k) any stand used for the retail sale of goods during the course of an exhibition.

• (2) In determining whether a shop falls within sub-paragraph (1)(a), (b) or (c) above, regard shall be had to the nature of the trade or business carried on there on weekdays as well as to the nature of the trade or business carried on there on Sunday.

• (3) This sub-paragraph applies to every part of a designated airport, except any part which is not ordinarily used by persons travelling by air to or from the airport.

• (4) In this paragraph “designated airport” means an airport designated for the purposes of this paragraph by an order made by the Secretary of State, as being an airport at which there appears to him to be a substantial amount of international passenger traffic.

• (5) The power to make an order under sub-paragraph (4) above shall be exercisable by statutory instrument.

• (6) Any order made under section 1(2) of the Shops (Airports) Act 1962 and in force at the commencement of this Schedule shall, so far as it relates to England and Wales, have effect as if made also under sub-paragraph (4) above, and may be amended or revoked as it has effect for the purposes of this paragraph by an order under sub-paragraph (4) above.

Notice of proposed Sunday opening

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Register of shops

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Duty to display notice

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At any time when—

• (a) a large shop is open on Sunday for the serving of retail customers, and

• (b) the prohibition in sub-paragraph (1) of paragraph 2 above is excluded only by sub-paragraph (3) of that paragraph,

a notice specifying the Sunday opening hours shall be displayed in a conspicuous position inside and outside the shop.

Offences

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• (1) If paragraph 2(1) above is contravened in relation to a shop, the occupier of the shop shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine.

• (2) If paragraph 6 above is contravened in relation to a shop, the occupier of the shop shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 2 on the standard scale.

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Where a person is charged with having contravened paragraph 2(1) above, in relation to a large shop which was permitted to be open for the serving of retail customers on the Sunday in question, by reason of his having served a retail customer after the end of the period during which the shop is permitted to be open by virtue of paragraph 2(3) above, it shall be a defence to prove that the customer was in the shop before the end of that period and left not later than half an hour after the end of that period.

Transitional provision

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SCHEDULE 2

Part I — General enforcement provisions

Duty to enforce Act

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It shall be the duty of every local authority to enforce within their area the provisions of Schedules 1 and 3 to this Act and Part II of this Schedule.

Inspectors

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For the purposes of their duties under paragraph 1 above it shall be the duty of every local authority to appoint inspectors.

Powers of entry

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Obstruction of inspectors

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Investigatory powers

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For the investigatory powers available to a local authority and the inspectors appointed by it under paragraph 2 for the purposes of the duty in paragraph 1, see Schedule 5 to the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

Offences due to fault of other person

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Where the commission by any person of an offence under this Act is due to the act or default of some other person, that other person shall be guilty of the offence, and a person may be charged with and convicted of the offence by virtue of this paragraph whether or not proceedings are taken against the first-mentioned person.

Offences by bodies corporate

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• (1) Where an offence under this Act committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

• (2) Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, sub-paragraph (1) above shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.

Defence of due diligence

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• (1) In any proceedings for an offence under this Act it shall, subject to sub-paragraph (2) below, be a defence for the person charged to prove that he took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence by himself or by a person under his control.

• (2) If in any case the defence provided by sub-paragraph (1) above involves the allegation that the commission of the offence was due to the act or default of another person, the person charged shall not, without leave of the court, be entitled to rely on that defence unless, at least seven clear days before the hearing, he has served on the prosecutor a notice in writing giving such information identifying or assisting in the identification of that other person as was then in his possession.

Part II — Shops occupied by persons observing the Jewish Sabbath

Shops occupied by persons of the Jewish religion

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• (1) A person of the Jewish religion who is the occupier of a large shop may give to the local authority for the area in which the shop is situated a notice signed by him stating—

• (a) that he is a person of the Jewish religion, and

• (b) that he intends to keep the shop closed for the serving of customers on the Jewish Sabbath.

• (2) For the purposes of this paragraph, a shop occupied by a partnership or company shall be taken to be occupied by a person of the Jewish religion if, and only if, the majority of the partners or of the directors, as the case may be, are persons of that religion.

• (3) A notice under sub-paragraph (1) above shall be accompanied by a certificate signed by an authorised person that the person giving the notice is a person of the Jewish religion.

• (4) Where the occupier of the shop is a partnership or company—

• (a) any notice under sub-paragraph (1) above shall be given by the majority of the partners or directors and, if not given by all of them, shall specify the names of the other partners or directors, and

• (b) a certificate under sub-paragraph (3) above is required in relation to each of the persons by whom such a notice is given.

• (5) Every local authority shall keep a register containing particulars of the name (if any) and address of every shop in respect of which a notice under sub-paragraph (1) above has effect.

• (6) Any register kept under this paragraph—

• (a) shall be open to inspection by members of the public at all reasonable times, and

• (b) may be kept by means of a computer.

• (7) If there is any change—

• (a) in the occupation of a shop in respect of which a notice under sub-paragraph (1) above has effect, or

• (b) in any partnership or among the directors of any company by which such a shop is occupied,

the notice shall be taken to be cancelled at the end of the period of 14 days beginning with the day on which the change occurred, unless during that period, or within such further time as may be allowed by the local authority, a fresh notice is given under sub-paragraph (1) above in respect of the shop.

• (8) Where a fresh notice is given under sub-paragraph (1) above by reason of a change of the kind mentioned in sub-paragraph (7) above, the local authority may dispense with the certificate required by sub-paragraph (3) above in the case of any person in respect of whom such a certificate has been provided in connection with a former notice in respect of that shop or any other shop in the area of the local authority.

• (9) A notice given under sub-paragraph (1) above in respect of any shop shall be cancelled on application in that behalf being made to the local authority by the occupier of the shop.

• (10) A person who, in a notice or certificate given for the purposes of this paragraph, makes a statement which is false in a material respect and which he knows to be false or does not believe to be true shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.