Regulatory Reform (Sunday Trading) Order 2004 (Hansard, 23 February 2004)

§ Baroness Miller of Hendon

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his explanation of these new regulations and for the brief but clear statement by his department. This clarity is essential in view of the sensitivity of the issue of Sunday trading, and the many opponents to it.

Noble Lords will recall the objections that were raised when the Sunday trading laws were drastically revised by the former government, and the dire predictions about the break-up of family life if people were tempted to go shopping rather than to church or 104 to stay at home, mowing the lawn, or washing the car, or even watching the omnibus edition of "EastEnders" on the television. The trade union USDAW threatened grave industrial unrest on the part of oppressed shop workers who would be coerced into working on Sundays.

As we now know, Sunday trading has been welcomed, as the noble Lord said, by the vast numbers of the public who vote with their feet by going shopping, often en famille, on Sundays. It is also a help to those who, because of work or other personal commitments, have limited time in which to shop. Shop staff, in turn, are pleased, without coercion, to accept the overtime or time off in lieu that they get for working on Sunday. The fact is that those who object to going shopping on Sunday are not obliged to do so.

It is therefore only right, 10 years on from the passing of the original Act, for the Government to have reviewed how it has been working.

The reform contained in the first proposal of the order is to remove the requirement for the owners of larger shops, who are restricted to six hours of opening on Sundays, to make an announcement to the local authority of what their opening hours will be. In turn, the local authority is currently required solemnly to record those hours.

At present, if a store wants to change its opening hours from, say, 11 am to 5 pm to 10 am to 4 pm, it has to give 14 days' notice. The proposed alteration is to remove that registration requirement on the basis that, after 10 years, it has been found that the shops can be trusted not to cheat. The Government are removing an unnecessary—perhaps "obsolete" or "redundant" would be better words—piece of bureaucracy and the attendant costs on local councils.

The issue of Sunday or Christmas Day trading is, so far as the Conservative Party is concerned, a matter for the conscience and religious beliefs of individual Members of Parliament or Members of your Lordships' House. We shall therefore leave it to our colleagues on these Benches—I am not sure where they are tonight—to respond to this part of the draft order.

The second proposal is to remove the restriction on the sale of methylated spirits on a Sunday. As the noble Lord indicated—he did not use quite these words—this is a relic of the Victorian era when methylated spirits were a symbol of the demon drink. Meths was the crack cocaine of its day. It was cheaper than gin, which in all conscience was cheap enough then, but gin, rum or other spirits were not available on Sundays. Meths was deliberately coloured purple, as distinct from its natural clear colour, supposedly to make it less appetising. But the so-called meths drinkers who used to abound in seedier parts of towns now unfortunately can find the stimulant or oblivion that they seek by other means and elsewhere than in hardware or chemist shops.

According to Customs & Excise, which was responsible for collecting the licence fee for selling methylated spirits, which has long since been abolished, and for enforcing the 1899 Act which rendered illegal its sale on Sundays, no one can recall 105 when there was last a prosecution. The rule is frequently flouted by smaller shops, whose owners were possibly unaware—I confess I was until I saw the present draft order—that there was any such prohibition. Its continued existence cannot be justified on the grounds that it removed temptation from those who might want to drink it on Sundays. All it does is inconvenience those who want to polish their windows, light barbecues or, in my case, remove those infuriating sticky labels from glass or chinaware. It is one small step on the road to removing unnecessary, redundant and obsolete regulation. But again, as it relates to an aspect of Sunday trading, it is a matter for my noble friends to decide for themselves as individuals whether or not to support it.

§ Lord Triesman

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, for the way in which she approached this discussion. She is 100 per cent correct in everything she said about the freedoms that people have to shop or, indeed, to work in a shop on a Sunday. All shopworkers in England and Wales except those who are specifically employed to work on Sundays have the right to refuse to work on Sundays and to be 106 protected against dismissal or detriment. It J s correct that those rights are contained in the Employment Rights Act 1996.

I very much enjoyed the description by the noble Baroness of the great changes that have taken place over the years and the ways in which some things which were thought to be a very great risk have turned out not to be. As someone who does not watch the omnibus edition of "EastEnders" or even, indeed, listen to the omnibus edition of "The Archers" but certainly on occasions goes shopping on Sundays, I know the benefits.

I share with the noble Baroness some interest in the revelation about methylated spirits and call to mind novels in which people seek out not only methylated spirits but even boot polish and other things which contain alcohol that could be extracted. I note only that progress now means that many drinks tinted purple are regarded as a fashion accoutrement. Methylated spirits plainly now only really panders to the needs of those with Primus stoves.

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Miller, for that. I am grateful for her contribution to this brief debate.