Many people who have been through the trauma of marital separation and divorce will know well the inefficiency and inaccessibility of the Child Support Agency (CSA).

Failures to obtain information or action from the CSA are one of the most frequent reasons for visits to my constituency surgeries.

Early on in my work as an MP I was so appalled by these difficulties that I met the minister then responsible to express my concerns. I have had a second meeting more recently with the current minister. Because of interventions by many MPs, at last the Government has acted.

Child Support is to be redesigned to "create a smaller but much more effective child support system". These are the words of John Hutton, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in July. Changes to improve the system will take time but if nothing is seen to happen after the publication of a Government paper on the subject due out this autumn I will again be hammering on ministers' doors. The system must have powers to cope with reluctant payers and accuracy for those who pay willingly.

I attended a renewable energy exhibition in the House of Commons and learnt that the cost of domestic wind-powered electricity generators - which can save up to a third of an average household electricity bill - is falling. On a larger scale, marine wind farms, tidal power and solar energy systems were all demonstrated as solutions currently practicable.

The importance of wood chips as a renewable fuel is appreciated. I understand that County Hall is heated with compacted wood chips from the Wyre Forest, a great benefit to both.

Appreciating the severe problems faced by sugar beet growers, I had hoped that bio-ethanol production from beet might be a possibility but, sadly, unless the price of oil increases greatly it will not be economic.

I took part in a NHS debate last week. I warned about the consequences of the rush to privatisation of acute hospital care providers and I offered to help the Government with current acute hospital reconfigurations. I know how reconfiguration should not be carried out and so I can help the Government make the reconfiguration process more acceptable - unlike its disastrous handling in Worcestershire between 1997 and 2000.

To my amazement, after this debate, I received a letter of thanks for my advice from the Health Secretary and will soon meet the NHS chief executive. However, my constituents need not fear that I am getting too close to the Government!

Dr Taylor is independent MP for Wyre Forest