To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the total amount of all unclaimed premium bond prizes for each of the past five years.

A premium bond prize is deemed to be unclaimed when it has been outstanding for 18 months since the draw in which it was issued. The latest figure, therefore, is for prizes unclaimed up to and including the October 1991 prize draw. All the figures below are cumulative from the first prize draw in June 1957.

	Number	Value £
October 1991	194,321	10,879,300
October 1990	174,954	9,859,150
October 1989	150,575	8,601,050
October 1988	127,050	7,404,200
October 1987	105,708	6,271,525

From June 1957 to October 1991, 38,549,293 prizes were issued to the value of £2,256,469,600. Prizes on the unclaimed list therefore represent 0·5 per cent. by number and 0·48 per cent. by value.