As part of the continuing push by the HSE for tougher sentencing on companies that break health and safety regulations, the Lord Chancellor (Lord Irvine) has called for legislation to be introduced to increase the range of offences for which companies can be fined and for which directors can be imprisoned. At the same time, the TUC has called for Magistrates to be given the power to impose unlimited fines for infringements of health and safety regulations, a power previously only available to the Crown Court. Magistrates can already impose fines of up to £20,000 or sentence offenders to up to 6 months in prison for health and safety breaches, but as an HSE spokesman told Facilities Management Legal Update, there is already a difficulty in persuading Magistrates to award even a quarter of the maximum sentence available.