Sunday Trading Public Consultation Findings.

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A decision made (12/02/2008) regarding: Sunday Trading Public Consultation Findings.

Decision Reference: MD-E-2008-0027
Decision Summary Title :	Sunday Trading Public Consultation		Date of Decision Summary:	11 February 2008
Decision Summary Author:	Adrian Garnier Retail Strategy Manager		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt? (State clauses from Code of Practice booklet)	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	N/A
Written Report Title :	Public Consultation on Sunday Trading		Date of Written Report:	February 2008
Written Report Author:	Adrian Garnier Retail Strategy Manager		Written Report : Public or Exempt? (State clauses from Code of Practice booklet)	Public
Subject: Sunday Trading : Public Consultation Findings
Decision(s): The Assistant Minister has approved and noted the responses to the Sunday Trading Public Consultation and has approved the publication of the summary of responses and the press release.
Reason(s) for Decision: A Public Consultation has been undertaken by the Economic Development Department to gauge public opinion on the level of regulation of Sunday trading and the suitability of new draft legislation. In accordance with the public consultation codes of practice, a summary of the findings is to be published. The publication of the summary findings has been separated from bringing the draft law to the States as changes need to be made to the draft law as a consequence of the consultation. Since this will take a further period of time to complete it has been decided to publish the findings now.
Resource Implications: There are no financial or manpower resource implications with this decision.
Action required: The “News Release” and the “Summary of Responses” report are to be published.
Signature: Connetable G.W.Fisher		Position: Assistant Minister
Date Signed:		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

Sunday Trading Public Consultation Findings.

Economic Development Department

Summary of Responses

SUMMARY OF CONSULTATION

With the existing Sunday trading Law dating back to 1960, there has been a growing need to review and update the legislation with the aim of making regulations governing Sunday opening more straightforward, logical and encompassing. The issue of the new legislation was considered by the States on 9th November 1999, following a proposition by the Conne*table of St Lawrence intending to replace the Shops (Sunday Trading) (Jersey) Law 1960.

The Comite* des Conne*tables has since worked closely with the then Legislation Committee and in April 2005, the Draft Shops (Regulation of Opening and Deliveries) (Jersey) Law 200- was lodged. Later that year the Draft Shops (Sunday Trading) (Trial Arrangements) (Jersey) Regulations 200- was brought forward. The Trial Arrangements Regulations were rejected by the States in July 2005 and the draft law was withdrawn without debate in September. The reasons for this were cited as lack of consultation information, the impact on human rights and families, the issue of public nuisance, noise pollution and the damage which may be caused to small family run businesses.

Under the new form of Government, the Legislation Committee ceased to exist and the Economic Development Minister received responsibility for Sunday trading. Having reviewed the history of the development of the legislation and the events leading to the withdrawal of the Trial Arrangements, it was decided that there should be further research carried out to address the concerns which had been raised. The States therefore charged the Economic Development Minister to conduct a public consultation into Sunday trading.

The Economic Development Department published its public consultation paper on Sunday trading between February and April 2007. The consultation was designed to gauge public opinion on the level of regulation on Sunday trading and the suitability of the new draft legislation. The consultation also aimed to identify those most affected by changes to Sunday trading and to identify what changes if any, should be proposed.

JERSEY ANNUAL SOCIAL SURVEY 2006

During 2006, the States of Jersey Statistics Department published their annual social survey. The aim of the survey is to collate and review detailed information on a wide range of social issues within the Island on an annual basis. The survey is comprised of a set of “core” questions, which are repeated each year, along with a range of specific “focus areas” determined by States of Jersey Departmental needs. Sunday trading formed a focus area of the annual survey during 2006.

This survey provided important additional research to the consultation and utilised a different methodology in collating data. The annual survey was distributed via a random household sample of the Island’s population, whereby the public consultation, invited responses from retailers, business, key organisations as well as members of the general public.

It is important to note that these two different approaches will tend not to give similar results, as those who are interested in a subject will be more likely to express their opinions in a general consultation, however a structured survey will generate responses from a demographically representative set of respondents that might not normally reply to a consultation on the subject in question. Due to this, the public consultation findings should be read in conjunction with the Jersey Annual Social Survey 2006, Chapter 2. For your convenience, any significant differences between the two sources, have been highlighted below. For a copy of the JASS 2006, please refer to : www.gov.je/ChiefMinister/Statistics/Social+Statistics

OVERVIEW OF CONSULTATION RESPONSES

Almost 270 responses were received during the consultation period. The public consultation questionnaire comprised of several multiple choice questions, as well as a “your views” section to allow for comments and points of view. The findings from the 237 who completed questionnaires were as follows :

Question 1 : Are you in favour of Sunday trading ?

Over half of respondents (57%) were in favour of Sunday trading. From these, 41% were in favour of restrictions, leaving 16% favouring complete deregulation. Of the 43% who said no to Sunday trading, 77% then went on to identify possible restrictions. There are two interpretations arising from this :

Respondents electing for no Sunday trading may have gone on to indicate what restrictions would be preferred should Sunday trading be permitted.

2. On progressing through the survey, respondents may have realised that they wanted some shops to open and filled in the restrictions section accordingly.

On the basis of the above assumptions, it is necessary to consider how the results would look if the “no but with restrictions” response are reallocated to the “yes with restrictions” section. Under these circumstances the results would be 74% for yes with restrictions, 16% for yes with no restrictions and 10% who indicated no. In relation to the replies for the specific restrictions, these remain generally unchanged, with the same order of preference as stipulated in the responses below.

The Jersey Annual Social Survey 2006 indicated that just over half of the population (52%), were in favour of Sunday trading with some form of restriction, 31% wanted no restrictions and 17% were not in favour of Sunday trading.

Question 2a : Should Sunday opening be allowed only in specific seasons ?

(Note : All data from question 2 to question 5 relate to replies : yes but with restrictions only).

43% of respondents did not favour any seasonal restrictions leaving 57% in favour of some form of restriction. The most favoured seasonal restrictions were before Christmas only and in the summer and before Christmas only, accounting for 27% and 26% respectively. Just 2% were in favour of summer only, while 2% chose other times of the year. In the Jersey Annual Social Survey, 56% favoured no seasonal restrictions, 33% chose in the summer and before Christmas, leaving 9% selecting before Christmas only and 2% in the summer only. (In the Annual survey, there was no option for “other times of the year”).

Question 2b : If Sunday opening applies to specific seasons only, what should happen outside this season ?

84% of respondents valued some Sunday trading outside of any imposed seasonal restrictions. This left 16% feeling that shops should be closed outside the identified festival season.

Question 3 : Should Sunday opening be allowed only at specific times ?

Just less than a quarter (24%) were in favour of no time restrictions on a Sunday. 76% however were in favour of a short day of some form, 37% opting for a short day only, i.e. the hours of 10 am till 4 pm, while 31% and 8% preferred mornings only and afternoons only respectively. In comparison, the JASS respondents favoured a short trading day with 52%, followed by no time restrictions 20% and mornings only with 19%.

Question 4 : Should only certain size shops be allowed to open on Sunday ?

79% of respondents were in favour of restricting the size of shops allowed to open on Sundays. Just over half 52%, were in favour of small shops only, while 26% preferred small and medium sized shops and 1% large sized shops only. The remaining 21% represented the proportion in favour of no size restrictions whatsoever. Interestingly in JASS, it was no size restriction which was most favoured, accounting for 64%, with just 13% preferring small shops only.

Question 4 : View on the maximum size you consider to be acceptable for shops

opening on a Sunday ?

In reply to the question on acceptable size, there were very few respondents, just 22% who actually indicated a maximum area they believed acceptable. To simplify the findings all responses have been recorded metrically and rounded to the nearest 50 square metre increment.

The data clearly shows an overwhelming preference for 200 square metres as the maximum floor space. However, it should be noted that this size was referred to in the public consultation and the new draft legislation as being the proposed maximum size. Thus, this may have had a certain degree of “influence” over the responses with respondents having this size in mind while completing the questionnaire.

Furthermore, several of the replies to this question had additional notes which indicated difficulties in being able to “gauge” how big 200 square metres was, which possibly contributed to the few number of overall replies to the question.

Question 5 : Should certain types of trade NOT be permitted on a Sunday ?

Please note that because question 5 held the option of multiple answers, the allocations below are expressed as percentages of those wanting restricted Sunday trading, as opposed to percentages of the total replies to each question.

85% of all respondents believed that betting should not be allowed on Sunday. The business of betting on Sundays is currently regulated within the Gambling (Betting) (Jersey) Regulations 1965. Both wholesale and supply followed by services (i.e. hair dressers, clothes repairers, dry cleaners etc.) were the second and third least favoured trades on Sundays, with 77% & 76% respectively. 54% selected non food, while town and out of town retail accounted for 46% and 40% respectively. At the other end of the scale the trades least favoured for restrictions were food with 7%, other with 6% and tourist attractions with 2%. 7% of respondents opted for no restrictions. (Several respondents selected trades which should not be allowed as well as indicating no restrictions, it was trades not allowed that were counted and not no restrictions).

In terms of the least favoured trades on Sundays, JASS highlighted the same preference of betting, services and wholesale. However, far fewer opted to restrict town retail, out of town retail and predominantly non food in comparison to the consultation. A much higher proportion in JASS preferred no restrictions on types of trades.

Question 6 : If retailing were permitted on a Sunday, are you generally likely to

make use of shopping facilities ?

(Note : Question 6 is representative of all questionnaire respondents).

If Sunday retailing were to be permitted, over half of the respondents (54%) indicated they would never shop on Sunday. Of those who wished to shop, 32% would do so in addition to Monday to Saturday, while 4% would prefer to Shop on Sunday instead of Monday to Saturday. The remaining 10% indicated that they did not know if they would make use of Sunday shopping facilities. Just over half of the respondents in JASS indicated they would be prepared to shop on a Sunday in addition to Monday to Saturday, with almost 20% stating they didn’t know.

The “your views” section of the questionnaire revealed that the most common concerns with Sunday trading were around family issues, the effects on employees and the ability to practice one’s religion. Overall, those commenting felt that Sunday trading would have a negative impact on family life. This would manifest by splitting up family members through having to work, thus reducing family time together. Children could also be affected especially those in a single parent environment.

In relation to the effect on employees, the concerns focused on the issue of staff being “pressurised” into having to work Sundays. There were strong feelings that those who did refuse, could risk losing their jobs or be overlooked in terms of promotion or other benefits. Another area of concern was the lack of employee protection and legislation, which should provide for the rights of employees.

Comments in relation to practicing one’s faith focused on Sunday trading detracting from the historical and traditional values that Sunday had always been associated with. Essentially Sunday was viewed as being a “day of rest” and having to work would have the affect of reducing Church attendance and as some stated being against the teachings of the Bible.

From the organisations and companies which chose to respond to the consultation, the responses covered views both in favour or restrictions and deregulation. The support for deregulation was based upon economic growth, improved efficiency, increased competition, more consumer choice, increased sales, investment, employment and could help the tourism industry.

Those who favoured restrictions believed this approach would be in the best interest of the Island and this would have the advantage of helping to protect small businesses. The favoured restriction was to regulate by size of shop as opposed to location or product. Several preferred size limits were stipulated with the maximum of these being 475 square metres.

The respondents who opposed trading felt that Sundays should be different, a day of rest and time to spend with family and friends. Several businesses believed that they would feel pressurised by competitors to open on Sundays. Most however agreed that existing shops who do open on Sundays should remain open.

Conclusion

Over half of all respondents 57%, were in favour of Sunday trading. Of those in favour, 41% supported the implementation of restrictions. From the 43% who said no to Sunday trading, 77% went on to identify their preferred restrictions, this could be interpreted as restrictions which may be preferred should Sunday trading be permitted or respondents may have realised that they wanted some shops to open and filled in the restrictions section accordingly.

The restrictions most favoured were for small shops only, opening on a short day, i.e. 10am to 4pm, with no seasonal restrictions. For businesses permitted to trade on a Sunday, the least favoured trades were betting, wholesale and supply, services and non food.

In contrast, the Jersey Annual Social Survey held a more liberal view, with over half of respondents in support of Sunday trading albeit with restrictions. JASS also highlight that a larger proportion were in favour of no seasonal and no size restrictions, but did support a short day opening time. Over half indicated that they would be prepared to shop on a Sunday in addition to the other days of the week.

We received many comments both supporting and opposing Sunday trading. From those opposed, the most common concerns were based on family issues, employee rights, religious standpoints and negative pressure on businesses to open in the form of competition.

Those supporting Sunday trading believed it would assist with economic growth, improved efficiency, increased competition, more consumer choice, sales, investment, employment and could help the tourism industry.

ASSISTANT MINISTER’S RESPONSE TO CONSULTATION

The present Sunday Trading legislation has now been in place for a significant number of years and has certain recognised deficiencies. Over that time it is possible that attitudes have changed and therefore it was appropriate to carry out this consultation exercise. The results indicate that some relaxation would generally be welcomed, but that total deregulation is not desired by the majority. These views will be taken into account in developing the draft law which will be presented to the States in 2008.

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