Why did NS&I name the precise town where the most recent £1m Premium Bonds jackpot winner came from?

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

In the most recent Premium Bonds draw, I noticed that one of the £1million jackpot winners was from Stockport, Greater Manchester.
However, I was under the impressions that usually it's the county that is named, not the exact location.
Looking through the list I see Hertfordshire, Devon, Kent, Wales... but not specific large towns or cities in these areas.
Why is it that Stockport is named - alongside other more specific locations like Barnet, Croydon, Norwich and Fife to name a few?
Helen Kirrane, This is Money's savings reporter, replies: June's Premium Bonds £1million prize winners hailed from Stockport and Edinburgh in this month's NS&I draw.
The Stockport winner was only the second ever £1million prize winner to come from the town, while the Edinburgh winner was the first £1million jackpot winner from the Scottish capital in eight years.
But why was Stockport reported as the location of one of the £1million winners but the other £1million prize winner's location was reported as the city of Edinburgh which is a local authority?
Other high value prize winners this month were reported as coming from even broader areas like West Midlands, as in the case of a £100,000 prize winner who won with a holding of £2,000.
The answer comes down to the way NS&I reports the location of prize winners.
NS&I sets rules when announcing the location of prize winners to protect identities.
Each customer is assigned to a town, local authority, county or government standard region and country.
When a winner is assigned to a town with less than 100,000 account holders, NS&I use the hierarchy below until it finds a level where that area has at least 100,000 Premium Bonds holders. These are:
Level 1 Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) Town (like Blackpool);
Level 2 County or Local Authority (like Lancashire);
Level 3 Government Standard Region (like North West);
Level 4 Country (like Wales).
Stockport falls into the bracket of place with more than 100,000 Premium Bond holders - the borough population is just shy of 300,000, which suggests at least one in three Stopfordians hold the popular products.
The local authority of Stockport had 105,484 Premium Bonds holders in the June 2025 draw, according to NS&I so it was able to report the precise area the winner was from.
A spokesman from NS&I says: 'Each month NS&I publishes a full list of prizes won including the winning bond number, size of holding and the location of the Bond holder.
'However, to protect the identity of individual Premium Bonds's holders we identify the location based on at least 100,000 bond holders living in the area. This could be the town or city, county or local authority, government Standard region or country.'
With this month's £1million winners, there are at least 100,000 Premium Bonds holders living in Stockport.
Whereas the winner from Edinburgh will come from an area with fewer than 100,000 holders and so the county or local authority area is used.
Different rules for reporting Premium Bonds winners from overseas apply.
For Premium Bonds holders living outside the UK, NS&I only publishes the country when there are at least 100,000 holders living there. Otherwise, they publish the area as 'overseas'.
For this reason, you will never see a Premium Bond's winner listed as being from the The Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, as they fall into this bracket.
Guernsey has just over 19,000 Premium Bonds holders and Jersey just over 29,000 – taken together, this is far less than 100,000 Premium Bonds holders, so NS&I would not report this as Channel Islands.
The default for reporting a winner from one of these areas would be 'overseas'.