§ Mr. Scott-Hopkinsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) for what reasons of policy, in an area designated as a holiday resort, shopkeepers selling goods specified in the Schedule 7 to the Shops Act are permitted to open for only 18 Sundays each year;
(2) for what reasons of policy, in an area designated as a holiday resort, it is permitted under Section 51 of the Shops Act 1950 to sell on a Sunday any article of food, but not butcher's meat;
(3) for what reasons of policy it is permitted under the Shops Act 1950 to sell fresh tomatoes or peas in the pod on a Sunday, but not permitted to sell either commodity in a tin;
(4) for what reasons of policy it is permitted to sell spare motor parts on a Sunday under Part IV of the Shops Act 1950, but not permitted to sell a motor car or the tools and screws needed to fit the parts;
(5) for what reasons of policy it is permitted under the Shops Act 1950 to sell cut flowers on a Sunday, but not plants or seeds.
§ Dr. SummerskillThe restrictions to which the hon. Member refers date back to the Shops (Sunday Trading Restrictions) Act 1936 and the Retail Meat Traders' Shops (Sunday Closing) Act of the same year. The reasons for their introduction are now a matter of history, which the hon. Member will find set out in chapters 2 and 11 of the report of the Crathorne Committee on the Law on Sunday Observance (Cmnd. 2528).
The Crathorne Committee made a number of recommendations for the removal of what they regarded as anomalies in the present law, but Private Members' Bills founded on their recommendations have so far failed to obtain the approval of this House.
§ Mr. Scott-Hopkinsasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions for offences against the Sunday trading laws have been 130W brought in England and Wales in the last 12 months.
§ Dr. SummerskillThe latest figures available relate to the year 1976, when 402 persons were proceeded against in England and Wales for offences against Part IV (Sunday Trading) of the Shops Act 1950.