Unclaimed Lotto Millionaire Maker Code prizes for 2015

The request was refused by Gambling Commission.

Chester J. Lampwick

Dear Gambling Commission,

Please could you provide the total number of unclaimed Lotto Millionaire Maker Code prizes from, and including, Saturday 10th October, 2015 to Wednesday 30th December, 2015?
If at all possible, could you please state how many (if any) prizes went unclaimed for each month?

Many thanks in advance for your time and assistance with this matter.

Yours faithfully,

Chester J. Lampwick

Freedom of Information, Gambling Commission

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your request, received on 16 July 2021, for the following information:

1. the total number of unclaimed Euromillions Millionaire Maker Code prizes from, and including, Friday 13th November, 2009 to December 31st, 2010.

Further to this, we note the following requests received from yourself on 22 July 2021:

2. the total number of unclaimed Euromillions Millionaire Maker Code prizes from, and including, Friday 7th January,2011 to December 30th, 2011.
3. the total number of unclaimed Euromillions Millionaire Maker Code prizes from, and including, Tuesday 3rd January, 2012 to Friday 28th December, 2012.
4. the total number of unclaimed Euromillions Millionaire Maker Code prizes from, and including, Tuesday 1st January, 2013 to Tuesday 31st December, 2013
5. the total number of unclaimed Euromillions Millionaire Maker Code prizes from, and including, Friday 3rd January, 2014 to Tuesday 30th December, 2014.
6. the total number of unclaimed Lotto Millionaire Maker Code prizes from, and including, Saturday 10th October, 2015 to Wednesday 30th December, 2015
7. the total number of unclaimed Euromillions Millionaire Maker Code prizes from, and including, Tuesday 3rd January, 2017 to Friday 29th December, 2017.
8. the total number of unclaimed Lotto Millionaire Maker Code prizes from, and including, Wednesday 4th January, 2017 to Saturday 30th December, 2017
9. the total number of unclaimed Euromillions Millionaire Maker Code prizes from, and including, Tuesday 2nd January, 2018 to Friday 28th December, 2018.
10. the total number of unclaimed Euromillions Millionaire Maker Code prizes from, and including, Tuesday 1st January, 2019 to Tuesday 31st December, 2019.
11. the total number of unclaimed Euromillions Millionaire Maker Code prizes from, and including, Friday 3rd January, 2020 to Tuesday 29th December, 2020.

These requests have been processed under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

I am writing to confirm that the Gambling Commission does hold information falling within the scope of your requests. This information is generated after the 180-day validation period via a report from the National Lottery audit platform.

However, under the Appropriate Limit and Fees Regulations public authorities are able to aggregate two or more requests where they relate to any extent, to the same or similar information. Provided certain conditions are met. These are where the FOI requests:

- are made by one person, or by different persons who appear to the public authority to be acting in concert or in pursuance of a campaign;
- are received within any period of 60 consecutive working days;

Under Section 12(4) of the FOIA, provided these conditions are met, the Public Authority is permitted to regard the estimated cost of complying with any of the requests to be the estimated total cost of complying with all of them for the purpose of considering whether complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. We are therefore applying exemption 12(4) to all of your requests for information regarding the total number of unclaimed Euromillions/Lotto Millionaire Maker Code prizes

It has been estimated that the cost of complying with your requests aggregated under the Fees Regulations as explained above would exceed the appropriate limit and therefore under the terms of Section 12 of the Act, we are not obliged to comply.

Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for public authorities, such as the Commission, is set at £450. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 18 hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.

We estimate that it would take in excess of 18 hours to determine the appropriate material and locate, retrieve and extract any relevant information. in order to provide the information falling within the scope of your request we would be required to review thousands of reports covering the time period you have specified. There is no summary report available for unclaimed prizes, rather one report for each individual draw date.

When a public authority applies the Section 12 exemption to a request, the FOIA guidance specifically states that a public authority should avoid providing any information found as a result of a search as it denies the requestor the right to express a preference as to which parts of the request they may wish to receive within the appropriate time limit. Guidance on the application of section 12 can be viewed here:

https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisatio...

If you are able to narrow your request, we may be able to provide some data by working up to the time limit.

Until we are able to process the search and retrieval of the information you have requested, that can be provided within the statutory time limit, we are unable to ascertain if other exemptions will apply to the material retrieved, which would also prevent disclosure.

Please note, any refined request would be processed as a new request and the 20 working day statutory time limit would apply.

Kind regards

Review of the decision

If you are unhappy with the service you have received in relation to your Freedom of Information request and wish us to conduct a review of our decision, you should write to FOI Team, Gambling Commission, 4th floor, Victoria Square House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B2 4BP or by reply to this email.

If you are not content with the outcome of our review, you may then apply directly to the Information Commissioner (ICO) for a decision. Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have already exhausted the review procedure provided by the Gambling Commission. The ICO can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Freedom of Information Team
Gambling Commission
Victoria Square House
Victoria Square
Birmingham B2 4BP

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