The first winning number, drawn in Scotland, was 414XW486235 and belongs to someone who bought it in September 2020 and holds £45,000 in Premium Bonds.

The second winning number was 159FZ477948 and belongs to someone in Wandsworth, becoming the London borough’s second Premium Bond millionaire. The winner holds £29,042 in Premium Bonds and bought the winner in August 2009.

Each jackpot winner is notified in person by NS&I’s Agents Million.

There were 119,451,133,299 Bond numbers eligible for the draw, with close to five million prizes worth £218.9m to be won this month. To check if you’ve won, have your holder number handy and look at the prize checker on nsandi.com, the prize checker app or via an Alexa-enabled device. (You can also see if you have any unclaimed prizes.  There are 6,259 unclaimed prizes worth £198,450 in the Scottish Highlands, for example, the largest worth £1,000.)

‘Extra special Christmas’

Jill Waters, the NS&I retail director, said: “A massive congratulations to our two Premium Bonds jackpot winners from the Scottish Highlands and Wandsworth – their win has come just in time to make this Christmas an extra special one.

“With over 4.9 million prizes up for grabs this month, worth nearly £219 million, Premium Bonds holders up and down the country will be getting a fantastic early Christmas present from ERNIE ahead of the festivities kicking off. This Christmas, you can also give the gift of Premium Bonds to children and help kick start a healthy savings habit from just £25.”

Since the first draw in July 1957, ERNIE (the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment) has drawn 596 million prizes with a total value of £24 billion.

In September, the NS&I said the prize fund rate would increase from 1.40% to 2.20%, with the odds improving to 24,000 to 1.

‘It was a long trip up there’

The Agent Million responsible for sharing the news to the Scottish Highlands winner said: “It was the first time that myself or any of the other Agents Million had made the journey from the home of Premium Bonds in Lytham to the Highlands of Scotland.

“It was a long trip up there, but it was worth it for the joy that our winner had when I told them that they had won the £1 million jackpot. I’m sure that our winner in Wandsworth will be equally delighted by this windfall win.”