Shops Act 1950

Early closing days

1Closing of shops on weekly half-holiday

(1)Every shop shall be, closed for the serving of customers not later than one o'clock in the afternoon on one week day in every week.

(2)The local authority may, by order, fix the day on which a shop is to be so closed (in this Act referred to as " the weekly half-holiday "), and any such order may either fix the same day for all shops, or may fix—

(a)different days for different classes of shops ; or

(b)different days for different parts of the district; or

(c)different days for different periods of the year:

Provided that—

(i)where the day fixed is a day other than Saturday, the order shall provide for enabling Saturday to be substituted for such other day as respects any shop in which notice to that effect is affixed by the occupier;

(ii)where the day fixed is Saturday, the order shall provide for enabling some other day specified in the order to be substituted for Saturday as respects any shop in which notice to that effect is affixed by the occupier;

(iii)no order shall be made under this section unless the local authority, after making such inquiry as may be prescribed, are satisfied that the occupiers of a majority of each of the several classes of shops affected by the order approve the order.

(3)Unless and until an order is made under this section affecting a shop, the weekly half-holiday as respects the shop shall be such day as the occupier may specify in a notice affixed in the shop, but it shall not be lawful for the occupier of the shop to change the day oftener than once in any period of three months.

(4)Where the local authority have reason to believe that a majority of the occupiers of shops of any particular class in any area are in favour of being exempted from the provisions of this section, either wholly or by fixing as the closing hour instead of one o'clock some other hour not later than two o'clock, the local authority, unless they consider that the area in question is unreasonably small, shall take steps to ascertain the wishes of such occupiers.

If the local authority are satisfied that a majority of the occupiers of such shops are in favour of the exemption, or, in the case of a vote being taken, that at least one half of the votes recorded by the occupiers of shops within the area of the class in question are in favour of the exemption, the local authority shall make an order exempting the shops of that class within the area from the provisions of this section either wholly or to such extent as aforesaid.

(5)Where a shop is closed during the whole day on the occasion of a bank holiday, and that day is not the day fixed for the weekly half-holiday, it shall be lawful for the occupier of the shop to keep the shop open for the serving of customers after the hour at which it is required under this section to be closed either on the half-holiday immediately preceding, or on the half-holiday immediately succeeding, the bank holiday.

(6)This section shall not apply to any shop in which the only trade or business carried on is trade or business of any of the classes mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act, but the local authority may, by order made and revocable in the manner hereinafter provided with respect to closing orders, extend the provisions of this section to shops of any class exempted under this subsection if satisfied that the occupiers of at least two-thirds of the shops of that class approve the order.

(7)Nothing in this section shall prevent the serving of a customer at any time at which the shop is required to be closed under this section if it is proved either that the customer was in the shop before the time when the shop was required to be closed, or that there was reasonable ground for believing that the article supplied to the customer was required in the case of illness.

(8)Nothing in this section shall prevent customers from being served at a time when the shop in which they are served is required to be closed with victuals, stores, or other necessaries for a ship, on her arrival at, or immediately before her departure from, a port.