To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in West Lancashire constituency received tax credits in each of the last five years. (143537)

New tax credits were introduced in April 2003, and are currently in their 5^th year of operation.

Statistics of finalised annual tax credits awards for 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 and provisional estimates as at April 2007 by constituency are available on the HMRC website at:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtc-geog-stats.htm