Under the Act, larger retail stores are restricted to a maximum of six hours of trading between 10am and 6pm and subsequent efforts to completely deregulate Sunday trading have proved unsuccessful.
Peter Lynas of Keep Sunday Special said recent research had found most people in favour of keeping Sunday different from the rest of the week and protecting Sunday as a family day is a good idea.
He said it made sense for parents to have weekends free since children are off school on Saturdays and Sundays. He added that it was also good for couples and family members to have the weekends off so that they could spend time together.
“Culturally, Sunday has provided the ideal day to do this,” he said.
Mr Lynas said that many shop workers were still pressured to work on a Sunday in spite of safeguards in the current legislation designed to protect them.
“The UK is top of the table for evening and weekend work, but bottom of the table for child wellbeing,” he said.
“Over a million families with children have at least one parent working both weekend days, meaning that the working parent has little time to spend with their children.
“Three quarters of mothers working at weekends say that weekend work is a job requirement, rather than a choice, and the vast majority would prefer not to do it.
He added: “Those who want more Sunday shopping often use the choice argument, but they ignore the lack of choice faced by many workers. Balancing choice is the issue.”
