THE backbench Labour rebellion on the Terrorism Bill has shown the Government that it cannot always get its own way with a majority of only 66. The first defeat was on a procedural ploy over a Government amendment to reduce the period of detention without trial from three months to 90 days.

At first I thought this was a cynical attempt to honour their implied promise during the previous week that they would reduce the period in return for withdrawal of backbench Labour amendments where the Government faced certain defeat.

I was told by experts on House of Commons procedure that, because the Government had put in an amendment even as insignificant as this, it would give them the advantage of speaking first in the debate.

As readers will know, this amendment was lost and the amendment to reduce the period of detention without trial from three months to twenty eight days was won, both by considerable majorities.

I have since been written to by several constituents who felt that I should have supported the longer period of detention but I had not been convinced that the longer period would lead to more certain convictions and three months detention on suspicion seems to me totally alien to our free society.

It would be preferable to increase resources so that 28 days, double the present limit, would be adequate.

The result of this rebellion is that the Government realises that it may have to modify some of its controversial reforms on education and health.

The Health Committee, as a part of its enquiry into the Government's proposed partial ban into smoking in public places, visited Dublin.

The purpose of the enquiry is to balance the well-known health risks of passive smoking with the arguments against this and the practicalities of a partial ban or a total ban as in place in Eire.

We met representatives of the hospitality and public house industries as well as health representatives. We visited pubs and learned that there was 94 per cent support from smokers for the total ban.

Most noticeable to a non smoker was the fresh air within the pubs that we visited and the acceptance that smoking was only possible in the open air or in dedicated areas without complete walls or a roof.

We were told that the arguments for ventilation of indoor premises do not hold water as, although ventilation will remove the odour of cigarette smoke, it does not remove the dangerous particles. The Health Committee has two more sessions taking evidence from organisations in favour of both the total ban and the partial ban before writing its report.

After an adjournment debate on the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals Review, when I pointed out that there are solutions in the Government's own document "Keeping the NHS Local", I talked to Jacqui Smith, MP for Redditch, who is also a Privy Councillor and Minister of State in the Department for Education and Skills.

I told her I would support measures to improve the efficiency of the county's hospital services and oppose the same degree of drastic downgrading that took place in Kidderminster at Redditch as long as the cost of preserving services at Redditch was not further losses of services from Kidderminster which I would resist relentlessly.

Our Treatment Centre has been provided at great expense to save money for the whole county by reducing the load on hospitals in Worcester and Redditch and thus is a major part of the solution to the county's hospital crisis.