Thank
you to constituents working in the retail sector who have contacted me in
recent weeks to express their concerns over possible changes to Sunday trading
hours.
The
Government has rightly focussed much of its efforts on supporting our
much-loved high streets with important initiatives such as the Future High
Streets Fund. Sunday trading laws are key to ensuring that we continue to have
an environment where smaller, independent shops can compete fairly with larger
shops like supermarkets. As evidence has shown, relaxing our Sunday trading
laws would favour larger shops and further draw business away from smaller
shops, many of which are already under significant pressure brought on by
Covid-19.
I
have already written to Alok Sharma, the Secretary of State for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy, to express my concerns on this issue. While I
fully understand the importance of looking at our laws and regulations at this
critical stage to ensure that they are enabling us to withstand the impact of
Covid-19, I will be seeking reassurances from government ministers that any
changes will be temporary and for as short a time as necessary. We certainly do
not want to see these temporary changes to be setting a precedent for a
permanent change in the law after we recover from the current crisis.
