Shop Hours Act 1904
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1904 c. 31 |
| Year | 1904 |
Shop Hours Act, 1904
(4 Edw. 7.) CHAPTER 31.
An Act to provide for the Early Closing of Shops.
[15th August 1904]
B E it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
1 Closing order.
1. An order (in this Act referred to as ‘a closing order’) made by a local authority and confirmed by the central authority, in manner provided by this Act, may fix the hours on the several days of the week at which, either throughout the area of the local authority or in any specified part thereof, all shops or shops of any specified class are to be closed for serving customers.
2 Contents and effect of order.
(1) The hour fixed by a closing order (in this Act referred to as ‘the closing hour’) shall not be earlier than seven o'clock in the evening on any day of the week, except that on one specified day in the week it may be an hour not earlier than one o'clock in the afternoon.
(2) A closing order may prohibit, either absolutely or subject to such exemptions and conditions as may be contained in the order, the carrying on of any retail trade after the closing hour in any place, not being a shop, within the area to which the order applies, for the carrying on of which it would be unlawful to keep a shop open after that hour.
(3) The order may—
(a ) define the shops and trades to which the order applies; and
(b ) authorise sales after the closing hour in cases of emergency and in such other circumstances as may be specified or indicated in the order; and
(c ) contain any incidental, supplemental or consequential provisions which may appear necessary or proper.
(4) Nothing in a closing order shall apply to any fair lawfully held or a bazaar for charitable purposes nor to any shop where the only trade or business carried on is one or more of the trades or businesses mentioned in the schedule to this Act.
(5) Where several trades and businesses are carried on in the same shop and any of those trades or businesses are of such a nature that if they were the only trades or businesses carried on in the shop the closing order would not apply to the shop, the shop may be kept open after the closing hour for the purposes of those trades and businesses alone, but on such terms and under such conditions as may be specified in the order:
Provided that the terms and conditions as respects post office business shall be subject to the approval of the Postmaster-General.
3 Procedure for making orders.
(1) Whenever a local authority are satisfied that a prim facie case is made out for making a closing order, the authority shall give public notice, in the prescribed manner and in the prescribed form, of their intention to make an order, specifying therein a period (not being less than the prescribed period) within which objections may be made to the making of the proposed order and, if, after taking into consideration any objections they may have received, the local authority are satisfied that it is expedient to make the order and that the occupiers of at least two-thirds in number of the shops to be affected by the order approve the order, they may make the order.
(2) Notice of the provisions of the order shall be given and copies thereof shall be supplied in the prescribed manner, and the order shall be submitted to the central anthority, and the central authority shall consider any...
To continue reading
Request your trial