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Shops opening on Christmas Day

Under the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004, large shops in England and Wales cannot open on Christmas Day. For the purposes of the Act, a ‘large’ shop is larger than 280 square metres in size. Smaller shops are unaffected by the Act. A small shop could open twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year, including Christmas Day, if the owner so wished.

The 2004 Act originated as a Private Members’ Bill with Government support, introduced in the House of Commons by Kevan Jones MP. The Bill was a response to a growing trend of retail shops opening on Christmas Day. A “Protect Christmas Day” campaign by USDAW (the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) called for an outright ban on all large shops opening on Christmas Day, whatever day of the week it fell.

This short briefing paper summarises the background to the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 and its main provisions. The 2004 Act only extends to England and Wales, but the Christmas Day and New Year’s Day Trading (Scotland) Act 2007 contains similar (but not identical) provisions. Recently, USDAW called on the Scottish Government to make an order under the 2007 Act to ban all large shops opening on New Year’s Day. On 26 October 2021, following a public consultation, the Scottish Government announced that it would not be making an order. This paper also outlines the position in Scotland.