AS this Parliamentary term is likely to be short because of the expected General Election, the Government has many Bills to get through the House of Commons quickly.

The Consumer Credit Bill went through unopposed and is designed "to ensure that all consumer credit businesses act according to consistent rules and standards of conduct".

I hope this will exert control over the loan companies that extort massive repayments out of people who have been unable to maintain their repayments.

The Drugs Bill also passed its Second Reading unopposed and hopefully will lead to improvements in the effectiveness and availability of treatment for drug abusers.

It also increases the powers of the police during drug offence searches and for detention of suspects. A criticism that may be discussed in the Standing Committee is that the Bill does not address the needs of drug users who have not committed a crime.

Following the Health Select Committee Report on Obesity I have met representatives from several food and drink manufacturers as the report recommended that the industry had to be a part of the solution by providing and promoting foods that are better for us than the high fat, salt and sugar-containing convenience foods that are so tempting to all of us.

This week I met Coca Cola executives and learnt that Diet Coke which contains no sugar and less than one calorie per bottle is now outselling ordinary Coke in the major supermarkets.

So if we are given the choice we can be sensible and health conscious! It is also helpful that the fast food chains are making fruit and salad options readily available. I hope we can be as sensible with these!

Some of you will have heard that, without any consultation or warning, our heart specialists have been told that all heart operations for Worcestershire patients have now to be carried out in Coventry, 50 miles away, rather than in Birmingham as they always have been.

This is because there is spare capacity in Coventry, and Birmingham is over-burdened. My objection is that this decision has been taken unilaterally, with no consultation, completely disregarding the wishes of patients and their clinical or social needs and with no discussion about alternative solutions. I have already written to make my views clear to those in authority.