Any extension of Sunday trading hours for the major supermarkets in England and Wales is“extremely unlikely”, Independent Retail News has been told by “retail sector champion” Kevin Hawkins.
Hawkins, a former director general of the British Retail Consortium, has been given the task by the government of evaluating the consumer and trade responses to proposals for the retail sector in its Red Tape Challenge.
The government included Sunday trading in the public consultation along with the red tape surrounding weights and measures, age-restricted goods, consumer protection and other issues.
Hawkins said there was“no pressure” from the supermarkets to extend Sunday trading times beyond the six hours currently allowed in the 1994 law for stores of more than 3,000sq ft. “They have all lived with it very well. What we have got is a workable compromise,” said Hawkins. “Most people seem to be satisfiedwith it most of the time.”
He said the current economic situation made it unlikely the major multiples would want to spread their Sunday takings more thinly over a longer period with the associated extra labour costs.
Almost 2,500 responses were made about Sunday trading on the Red Tape Challenge website, with the overwhelming majority of people opposed to any liberalisation of the law.
What could come out of the consultation period, which ended yesterday (Thursday), is a simplification of the“complex range” of regulation on age-restricted goods.
The Red Tape Challenge also asked for views on the use of metric and imperial measures and even regulations affecting the marketing of eggs to allow small retailers to sell more locally-sourced produce.
Almost 10,000 people have responded to the suggestions and Hawkins will now assess the responses and make recommendations to the government.“We can reduce the overall stock of regulation partly by getting rid of legislation that is not relevant and partly by simplifying it to make it easier to understand and comply with,” he said.
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