Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by the websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
The use of cookies is now standard for most websites. If you are uncomfortable with the use of cookies, you can manage and control them through your browser, including removing cookies by deleting them from your ‘browser history’ (cache) when you leave the site.
You can read about how to manage these small files yourself through information on the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website.
If you choose not to disable cookies in your web browser you are agreeing to us using them on our website in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Our use of cookies
The cookies used on this website have been categorised based on the categories found in the ICC UK Cookie guide.
A list of all the cookies used on this website by category is set out below. By using our website, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.
Session Cookies
These cookies remain in your browser during your browser session only, ie until you leave the website.
Persistent Cookies
These cookies remain in your browser after the session (unless deleted by you).
Performance Cookies
These cookies collect information about your use of the website, such as webpages visited and any error messages; they do not collect personally identifiable information, and the information collected is aggregated such that it is anonymous. Performance cookies are used to improve how a website works.
Functionality Cookies
These cookies allow the website to remember any choices you make about the website (such as changes to text size, customised pages) or enable services such as commenting on a blog.
We use the following cookies on our website:
Cookie | Name | Purpose | Type | Duration |
CONSENT | Cookie consent setting | Persistent | 20 years | |
NID | Advertising cookie by Google | Persistent | 6 Months | |
Google Analytics | _ga | Google Analytics sets a unique ID that is used to calculate data for analytics reports. | Performance | 2 years |
Google Analytics | _gat | Used to throttle the request rate – limiting the collection of data on high traffic sites. | Performance | 10 minutes |
Google Analytics | _gid | Used to distinguish users from one another. | Performance | 1 day |
To opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Please see the following pages on the Google website to learn more:
Cookies set by Third Party sites
These cookies allow third parties to track the success of their application or customise the application for you. Because of how cookies work we cannot access these cookies, nor can the third parties access the data in cookies used on our site.
For example, if you choose to ‘share’ content through Twitter or other social networks you might be sent cookies from these websites. We don’t control the setting of these cookies, so please check those websites for more information about their cookies and how to manage them.
If you would like to restrict the use of cookies you can control this in your Internet browser. Links to advise on how to do this for the most popular Internet browsers are provided below for convenience and will be available for the Internet browser of your choice either online or via the software help (normally available via key F1).
Disabling Cookies
Changes to this Cookie Policy
We keep our Cookie Policy under regular review. This Cookie Policy was last updated on 17/05/2018.