The strange case of the Shops Act 1950 and the Sunday Trading Act 1994
In strange but true news….
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the repeal of the Shops Act 1950 (consolidating earlier Shop Acts between 1912 and 1938), and with it the end of Jewish-owned shops having always to provide a “conspicuous” sign to say that the shop will be closed on Saturdays, should the owner of the shop wish to open on Sundays. See 53/1 of the Act.
The Act had also consolidated the interesting right of local authorities to investigate whether a shopowner professing to be Jewish for the purposes of the Act is really Jewish, or just making it up. see 53/7.
The Shops Act 1950 was repealed largely because the Sunday Trading Act 1994 had been enacted a few months before, though not by that Act itself. This new Act did not contain the requirement to have a conspicuous sign in the shop effectively indicating Jewish ownership, but it did retain the requirement imposed on local authorities to maintain a register of (now only “large”) shops owned (“occupied” in the parlance of the Act) by people of the Jewish faith who wish to open longer hours on Sundays on the basis that they close on Saturdays. There are also provisions in the Act related to which “authorised person” can sign a sign a certificate to declare the shop occupier’s Jewishness. See Schedule 2, Part II/8
The Act also decreed that the register that must be maintained by local authorities must be open to public inspection at all reasonable times (as above).
I have not myself gone into a council office and demanded to see the register of shops occupied by Jewish people that the council is required to keep under the Schedule 2, Part II of the Sunday Trading Act 1994 (screenshot), and to be honest I would not advocate such a step to you, dear reader. as you might find the police being called to explore your motivations for such a demand.
I did, though, think it right to bring you this rather strange aspect of past and enduring law on this momentous 30th anniversary. No need to thank me. It is what I do.
