Relaxation of Sunday trading laws to be delayed after opposition by SNP

Under George Osborne's plans, powers to set Sunday trading rules will be devolved to local councils and mayors

The relaxation of Sunday trading laws in England and Wales is to be delayed by the Government after being opposed by the SNP, which said the proposals could drive down the wages of Scottish workers.

Under plans announced by George Osborne in this year’s Budget, powers to set Sunday trading rules are set to be devolved to local councils and mayors. Currently, large stores and supermarkets can only open for six hours on Sundays.

But the proposals have now been put on hold after the SNP said it would join Labour and around 20 Conservative rebels in opposing the changes, which it claimed would have consequences for other parts of the UK. The move left the Government facing the prospect of an embarrassing Commons defeat on the issue.


 SNP’s Westminster leader Angus Robertson said it was concerned that large national retailers might try to fund the extra opening hours by cutting wages
 (Justin Sutcliffe)

Downing Street insisted last night that there had been “absolutely” no U-turn on the policy. A Government source told i that its proposals on Sunday trading had not yet been finalised following a consultation but would be laid out “soon”.

Justifying the party’s decision to oppose the reforms, the SNP’s Westminster leader Angus Robertson said it was concerned that large national retailers might try to fund the extra opening hours in England and Wales by cutting the wages they paid to Sunday workers across the UK, including in Scotland.

Mr Robertson said the average Scottish supermarket worker earned an extra £1,383 per year by working on Sundays, when more generous pay was offered. If Sunday became “just another average day”, he added, then retailers would naturally look to cut the higher pay rates to bring it more into line with the rest of the week.


 Communities and Local Government Secretary Greg Clark said Sunday trading was “completely deregulated in Scotland”
 (Rex)

“We’re not opposed to Sunday trading,” he told the BBC. “We support Sunday trading, it exists in Scotland, it is a good thing. But if the Government is serious is doing this, it shouldn’t be doing it on the backs of shop workers who we fear, and they fear, will lose out on their pay terms.”

It is the second time that the SNP has publically stymied the Government’s plans since the general election. In July, a proposal to relax the ban on fox hunting in England and Wales had to be shelved when the party’s MPs said they would vote against the change.

John Hannett, the general secretary of shop workers’ union Usdaw, said it was urging MPs in Scotland and Northern Ireland to consider the potential impact of the changes to Sunday trading on their constituents. “Extended Sunday opening will increase retailers’ overheads but not the amount they take through the tills, because people don’t have more money to spend just because shops are open for longer,” he said.

“We believe that retailers may seek to mitigate the additional costs of opening for longer by reducing shop workers’ pay or changing their terms and conditions of employment to ensure that there is no increase in the wage bill.”

Responding to the SNP’s concerns in Parliament on 9 November, Communities and Local Government Secretary Greg Clark said Sunday trading was “completely deregulated in Scotland” and argued that the SNP “has the ability to do something about it” as it held power at Holyrood.