London 2012: Sunday trading laws ‘to be suspended’ for Olympics

Sunday, March 18, 2012
10:49 AM

Sunday trading laws will be suspended during the London 2012 Olympics in a bid to cash in on the Games, chancellor George Osborne is expected to announce in the Budget.

Emergency legislation will be used to lift the six-hour limit on the opening hours for larger stores across the whole of England and Wales on eight weekends covering the Olympics and Paralympics.

Officials hope hundreds of thousands of visitors flooding to the capital for the sporting spectacle will take advantage of late-night shopping in the West End, boosting flagging retail figures.

But the move is bound to meet stiff opposition from church leaders and some Tory backbenchers who have already warned that it was likely to lead to a permanent relaxation.

And Labour accused the chancellor of a “disgraceful breach of the need for a proper consultation and negotiation with trade unions and other groups”.

Under the Sunday Trading Act 1994, large shops over 280 square metres in England and Wales are restricted to six hours’ continuous trading between 10am and 6pm on Sundays and cannot open at all on Easter Sunday.

Without a change in the law, that would also mean the three biggest souvenir shops at the Olympic village itself in Stratford, east London, would have been forced to close their doors to spectators.

Details of the plans emerged as Mr Osborne said in the Budget he wanted “to ensure it is the working person who gets most support”.