SHOPS ACT (1912) AMENDMENT BILL. (Hansard, 17 February 1913)

§ VISCOUNT PEEL

My Lords, this Bill comes up from another place, where it was the result of an agreement between representatives of the Opposition, the Labour Party, and also of the Home Office. It is a Bill promoted at the instance of the Society of Refreshment House Keepers and Coffee House Keepers and also of that very important body the Waiters' Society, and it really is to suit the convenience largely of waiters and those engaged in the refreshment business. The Bill provides special provisions for those who are engaged 1366 in the sale of refreshments, and with that object it seeks to amend the first section of the Shops Act, 1912. As your Lordships can easily imagine, the code of regulations and hours and so on laid down does not suit all trades, and especially does not suit the refreshment trade. The hours of meals are altered, and in addition to that the hours of holidays and the number of Sundays to be enjoyed free, and so on, are also altered as the result of this agreement. The provisions of this Bill, if it becomes law, are put into force by individual adoption—that is to say, each refreshment-house keeper or coffee-house keeper has to give notice that he will adopt its provisions. He has to put a notice up to that effect in his place of business, and at the end of the year he can go back to the old arrangement if he chooses. The only other observation I need make about the Bill is this, that it does not apply to those refreshment houses which are carried on by the occupier solely with the assistance of his family. In that case he is unable, under the provisions of the Bill, to adopt this method of carrying on his business. I think there is really nothing more to say about it. There is, of course, the usual list of penalties for various offences. I beg to move.