§ Mr. David Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether he is satisfied with the arrangements of the premium bond organisation for keeping records of the names and addresses of bond purchasers;
(2) how many premium bonds belong to persons whose name or address has been mislaid within the premium bond organisation;
(3) how many unclaimed premium bond winners there are at the latest available date;
(4) hat is the value of unclaimed premium bonds to date;
(5) whether it is known how many of the unclaimed premium bonds relate to bondholders who have changed their addresses and how many to bondholders whose name or address has been mislaid in the bond organisation.
§ Mr. DellI am satisfied with the arrangements of the Bonds and Stock Office of the Department for National Savings itself for keeping records of the names and addresses of bondholders. There is no instance on record of a name or address of a bondholder being lost in the Office.
Very occasionally, however, in accounting with the selling agents, post offices and banks, for sales of bonds of £10 and less, it is found that a reduction in the stock of bonds held by the agent is not fully matched by purchase applications received in the Bonds and Stock Office. If it is established that the reduction in stock represents bonds sold and if after careful inquiry the names and addresses of the buyers are still not available, the relevant bonds are recorded in the Bonds and Stock Office as having 267W been sold to a holder whose name and address remains to be identified. Each such bond participates in all the prize draws for which it is eligible.
The bond purchaser is identified if he writes to the Bonds and Stock Office about his bond or applies to encash it. Any prizes won and held in suspense are then paid out.
Some unexplained reductions in stock are still under investigation, and the present tally of unidentified registrations is just over 7,000, out of a total of 206 million purchases since the scheme began in 1956. Within this figure of unidentified registrations, there are 150 unidentified prizes outstanding.
At 30th September 1975 there was a total of 10,262 premium savings bond prizes outstanding which had not been claimed after a period of at least 18 months following the relevant prize draw. The total value of these unclaimed prizes is £314,350. The vast majority of unclaimed prizes, however, belong not to unidentified bondholders but to bondholders whose names are known but who have not notified the Bonds and Stock Office of their latest address, though careful attempts are made to trace them. The 150 of the 10,262 unclaimed prizes which have been won by bonds registered as sold to a holder whose name remains to be identified, can be broken down as follows: one each of £1,000, £500 and £250; two each of £100; 33 of £50; 112 of £25.
A complete list of prizes unclaimed for 18 months or more is published quarterly as a supplement to the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes, copies of which are displayed at all the larger post offices.
Careful consideration is being given to what more might be done to reduce the number of unidentified holdings. In this connection, it has been found that there was an unusually high rate of failure to report purchases at Kinsbourne Green Post Office in 1971 and 1972, and an attempt will now be made by local advertising to identify persons who bought bonds there during that period. In future, records will be so kept that early attention is drawn to any selling agent making a succession of errors, and DNS is urgently considering the accounting procedures involved with a view to reducing 268W even further the incidence of unreported purchases of premium savings bonds.