New Sunday Trading Legislation for The Olympic and Paralympic Games

Instead, The Sunday Trading (London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) Bill will be put into place after receiving Royal Assent.

 

The new (temporary) Act suspends restrictions on large shops’ Sunday trading hours for eight weeks, providing they have a relevant floor area of more than 280 square metres. Once these 8 weeks have passed, normal Sunday Trading hours will apply to all stores.

This temporary bill also sees a reduced notice period that retail workers have to give to opt out of Sunday working. The notice period has been changed to two months from three months due to concern that employees in large shops will not be able to give the appropriate amount of time, after the Royal Assent has been passed, for the start of the suspension period. This again will revert back to the original Act after 9^th September.

As Scotland does not have Sunday Trading legislation and Northern Ireland has not proposed to alter their legislation, this suspension will only apply in England and Wales.