Relax Sunday opening curbs to help people shop during coronavirus lockdown, ministers urged

The Government was today urged to suspend Sunday trading restrictions to allow supermarkets to serve more customers.

Jace Tyrrell, chief executive of one of London’s leading business groups, the New West End Company, said it was an “absolute necessity” for shops to be allowed to open on Sundays for longer than the six hours currently allowed.

Mr Tyrrell, whose organisation represents hundreds of traders in central London, including a number of supermarkets, said: “We definitely need longer trading on Sundays in this period so that the most number of people possible can get into supermarkets.

“Even in central London, in the West End and Mayfair, there are lots of vulnerable people who don’t find it easy to get hold of food. This would help.

“But it is equally important for the recovery phase. We will need it all the more then. It’s going to be desperately needed for all retailers when they get up and running again.”

The call was backed by the Tax­payers’ Alliance lobby group, which said the move was essential to help clear the backlog of demand at a time when online delivery slots are booked for weeks in advance.

Sunday opening hours are regulated by the Sunday Trading Act 1994, which limits larger stores to six hours of continuous trading on the traditional “day of rest”.

Many supermarkets choose to open from 10am to 4pm, with half an hour of browsing allowed before tills are turned on, and currently a full hour for NHS workers in Tesco branches.  

The restrictions were temporarily suspended for eight weekends over the summer of the Olympics in 2012. The last move to relax the laws was defeated in the House of Commons in March 2016.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “We continue to have regular conversations with the food sector and will keep measures under review in these unprecedented times.”

Meanwhile the Co-op said it had filled all 5,000 temporary store jobs it created last week in just seven days following an “unprecedented” response to the retailer’s recruitment drive.

Asda it is offering fully paid leave to staff classed as vulnerable, including over-70s and carers of people in the most at-risk categories.

Asda’s chief people officer, Hayley Tatum, said: “We don’t want any of our colleagues worrying about being paid if they need to self-isolate as a result of coronavirus, which is why we’ve taken the decision to pay them for the next 12 weeks.”