MSPs back festive shops shutdown

Large stores would have to close on the two "special" days

A Holyrood committee has backed a bill to ban large stores from opening on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

MSPs on the Justice 2 Committee narrowly voted in favour of the plans, put forward by Labour backbencher Karen Whitefield, to keep the days "special".

The committee is now urging the Scottish Executive to state whether it backs the bill or not.

If approved, the bill would stop shops with a floor size of more than 280 sq m opening on those days.

Four members of the committee - three Labour MSPs and Scottish Socialist leader Colin Fox - backed the general principles of the Christmas Day and New Year's Day Trading Bill.

The bill aims to protect the special nature of Christmas Day and New Year's Day in Scotland Bill Butler MSP Should shops close over Christmas and New Year?

However, three MSPs, a Tory, a Nationalist and a Liberal Democrat, refused to support it.

SNP MSP Stewart Maxwell and Lib Dem Jeremy Purvis claimed there was no strong evidence that stopping stores from opening would fulfil the objective of protecting the majority of shop workers from having to work on the two days.

And Tory MSP David Davidson argued the bill discriminated against shops based on their size.

However, committee deputy convener, Labour MSP Bill Butler, argued: "The evidence presented to the committee is that both days are seen as special days on which people take time off to spend with their families and communities.

Railway stations

"The bill aims to protect the special nature of Christmas Day and New Year's Day in Scotland."

Business chiefs at CBI Scotland have already written to the leaders of Scotland's main political parties, calling on them to reject moves to ban traders opening on New Year's Day.

Fiona Moriarty, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said that while shop bosses did not want to open on Christmas Day, they did not believe there was any popular support for a ban on New Year's Day trading.

"Scottish retailers are very concerned that the committee has supported keeping the shutters down on New Year's Day," she said.

"We don't believe there is any popular pressure for a ban.

"Larger Scottish retailers haven't traditionally opened on January 1 but trading is always driven by customer demand and they shouldn't be prevented from reacting as that changes in the future."

'Heavy handed'

Ms Moriarty said there was no evidence that staff were being forced to work and claimed many actually welcomed the opportunity to gain extra cash for working on New Year's Day.

"A heavy handed ban on shop opening could seriously harm the contribution retail makes to Scotland's economy," she added.

Under the proposals put forward by Ms Whitefield, the MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, shops of more than 3,000 sq ft (280 sq m) would be forced to close on both 25 December and 1 January.

Smaller shops, restaurants, pubs, takeaways, registered pharmacies and shops within airports, railway stations, ports and motorway service stations would not be affected by the ban.

The proposals are supported by leaders of the trade union Usdaw.