Society: Night owls keep the tills ringing

One in three people - nearly 17 million of us - now go shopping at night, according to new research. Unsociable working hours mean that people are now demanding more shops and services to be available 24 hours a day.

At the moment more than one million people in the UK work between 9-11pm and around 750,000 work between 2 and 5am. It is estimated that these figures will double in the next 10 years. According to the survey carried out by Shell, which is promoting the shops at its all night garages, more than half of the population are in favour of a 24-hour society.