Shops Bill (Hansard, 19 December 1985)

§ The Solicitor-General

The Shops Act 1950 provides that, save for certain authorised transactions, every shop in England and Wales is to be closed for the serving of customers on a Sunday. Breach of those provisions is a criminal offence, and the Act makes it the duty of every local authority to enforce within their districts the provisions of the Act, and for that purpose to institute and carry out such proceedings in respect of contraventions of the provisions as may be necessary to secure observance of them: see section 71.

That duty and the way in which its discharge should be approached were considered by the House of Lords in the case Stoke-on-Trent City Council v. B & Q (Retail) Limited [1984] AC 754. In that case Lord Roskill adopted a passage from the judgment of Mr. Justice Webster in an earlier case as to the manner in which a local authority was to approach its duty, and Lords Diplock, Fraser of Tullybelton and Templeman all agreed. That passage is as follows: The duty of that authority under Section 71(1) is first of all to consider—and these matters may have to be done at the same time, but not necessarily—whether that conduct prima facie constitutes a contravention of the provisions of the Act. If so, then they have to consider whether it is necessary to institute and carry on proceedings in respect of that prima facie contravention in order to secure the observance of provisions of the Act. If they decide that it is necessary to do so, then they have a duty to institute and carry on these proceedings.

Lord Roskill further stated that when considering whether it was necessary to institute and carry on proceedings he saw no reason why the local authority was not entitled to have regard, in relation to the particular case or cases in question, to the financial consequences to it of any suggested action.

I consider it accordingly clear that Parliament has placed upon each local authority in England and Wales a duty to consider fully any alleged contravention of the law relating to Sunday trading which is brought to its attention.

Local authorities have further powers under section 222 of the Local Government Act 1972. In Stoke-on-Trent v. B & Q (Retail) Limited [1984] AC 754 the House of Lords held that the council was entitled 252W to use those powers to institute proceedings for injunctive relief where it was satisfied and that such relief was the only way to stop deliberate and flagrant flouting of the provisions relating to Sunday trading in its area.

This statutory power may be exercised only where the authority considers it expedient for the promotion of protection of the interests of the inhabitants of its area: see section 222(1). I understand from my rt. hon. Friend the Home Secretary that a substantial number of local authorities have used this power, and have obtained injunctions against such offenders.

Section 222 does not deprive the Attorney-General of his general power to enforce obedience to public law by proceedings ex officio or by relator action. Nevertheless, the court in the Stoke-on-Trent council case was advised on behalf of the Attorney-General that in his view section 222 was clearly designed to confer a substantial measure of autonomy on local authorities in respect of law enforcement within their areas. The Attorney-General welcomes that autonomy in regard to the control of those activities generally associated with local authority jurisdiction. My right hon. and learned Friend adheres to that view, considering that a local authority will generally be in a better position than the Attorney-General to judge whether it is expedient for the promotion or protection of the interests of the inhabitants of its area that proceedings for an injunction should issue to restrain the breach of the Sunday trading provisions of the Shops Act 1950.

The proposals in the Shops Bill [Lords] will, if enacted, remove the current restrictions on Sunday trading hours, consequently, the need for the enforcement of those restrictions will be removed.