Christmas Day shop closure

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is reminding businesses that shops are not allowed to open on Christmas Day.

Each year the OFT receives calls from businesses checking the permitted opening times of shops over the Christmas period. The Shops Act 2000 was introduced to give businesses more freedom in choosing their opening hours but it was recognised at the time that shop workers require protection from requests to work unreasonable hours. Protective measures were built into the Act and the requirement that all shops close throughout Christmas Day was introduced to respect the importance of the day and to ensure that shop workers can enjoy it, just as most other employees can.