§ Lord CHARLES BERESFORDasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether certain costermongers in London have received permission to trade after the time at which shops should be closed; whether he is aware that it would be most inconvenient to many of the inhabitants' of Portsmouth, and vitally affect the trade of the Portsmouth costermongers, if they were unable to do business after the shops were closed; and whether he can inform the House if Clause 10 of the Shops Bill will prevent costermongers trading after the shops are closed?
§ The SECRETARY of STATE for the HOME DEPARTMENT (Mr. Churchill)The effect of Clause 10, which has now 182 become Clause 15 in the Bill as amended, is to make it unlawful to carry on any class of retail trade elsewhere than in a shop at a time when under the Bill or a Closing Order shops carrying on that class of trade are required to be closed. No exceptions to this rule are made by the Bill for costermongers either in London or elsewhere; though, so far as regards Closing Orders, a general discretion is left to the local authority making the Order to authorise sales after the closing hour in emergencies or other special cases if they think fit. It would obviously be a great hardship to shopkeepers if they were required to be closed while a similar trade to their own could be carried on without let or hindrance in the streets outside and would inevitably lead many shopkeepers to carry on a street trade themselves after the closing hour, and so defeat the very object of the Bill. No representations on the point have reached me from Portsmouth, but I have no reason to suppose that the conditions there are different from those in many other towns.
§ Lord C. BERESFORDIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that the costers carry on a totally different trade from what is carried on in shops? That certainly is so in Portsmouth.
§ Mr. GREENEasked whether the Government has decided to omit all the provisions relating to Sunday trading in London from the Shops Bill?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLBy Clause 8 of the Bill, as amended in the Standing Committee, the administrative county of London and some other areas are to be exempted from the provisions of the Bill as to Sunday Closing up to two o'clock in the afternoon; but I propose on the Report stage of the Bill to move to insert a provision which will keep in force the provisions of the Sunday Observance Act, 1677, so far, at any rate, as regards the areas to be exempted from the Sunday Closing provisions of the Bill.