Large shops over 280 square metres in England and Wales may open for only six continuous hours between 10am and 6pm on Sundays under the Sunday Trading Act 1994. Small shops face no limits, Scotland has fully deregulated Sunday trading, and Northern Ireland restricts large shops to five hours from 1pm. The government confirmed in 2025 it has no current plans to change these rules.
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36 Opinions
We need more protections for workers, not less.
To me it's either extend hours or ban opening. It's all muddied with size of shops. Just make it a level playing field.
If anything I’d vote for a total return to no trading on a Sunday. Not for religious reasons just because it would be nice one day a week to be able to enjoy a city or town centre without fighting hoardes of shoppers.
YES Enough bowing to outdated sillyness pushed into the brush public by the religious zelots.. Thankful the vast majority of British citizens no longer believe in the religion, so why should we be allow our shop opening hours to be controlled by the mumbo jumbo of yesteryear
NO for now...cuz the ? affects so many other things... number of employees, number of hours/days, training, handing over processes, transport infrastructure, family time, small businesses, workload & burnout, couriers, stock distribution, amenities, robust training for part timers, NI contributions...etc I can see weekly dynamics have changed drastically in my hometown cuz of so many opportunities & flexibilities...it's doable, but HOW to transition without harm(?!) 🤔
I don't see why businesses who want to sell on Sunday evenings shouldn't be allowed to due to government intervention. These laws should be scrapped but caveats in place for flexible employees to be able to impact the shifts they're given. If part time workers are unavailable on Sundays they're unavailable on Sundays.
call me old fashioned if you like but I feel like we should have one day a week where consumerism isn't shoved in our faces 24/7
Not unless public transport on Sundays is massively scaled up. It would be really difficult for a lot of people to get to and from work.
IMO Sunday shopping needs to be outlawed. Bring back a day for family cohesion. There is no requirement for shops to be open every day of the week. We have fridges and freezers, online shopping etc.
It’s the one time of the week it is cut shorter and allows for more family time for people. I think it is a nice tradition. Everyone is aware of it, so it shouldn’t be a problem to people.