What are cookies?
A cookie is a tiny data file, which is stored on your computer within the web browser, when certain web pages are visited. A cookie does not contain or collect information in isolation, but when read by a server via a web browser; it can give information to facilitate a more user friendly service such as detecting errors. A cookie will not harm your computer and no personally identifiable information is stored from the use of this site. For more information on how cookies are used on this site, please see the How We Use Cookies section below.
To use our website fully, you will need to have cookies enabled. If you do not wish to enable cookies, you can still browse the site; however certain features of the site may be limited. Most web browsers have cookies automatically enabled; however see the Disabling cookies section below where you can find out how you can check your cookie settings.
This information is outlined as part of our efforts to comply with recent legislation and to ensure that we are open, honest and clear about user privacy. Please refer to our Privacy Policy for more information.
For more general information on cookies see the Wikipedia article on HTTP Cookies.
How we use cookies
- Session cookies, which are automatically deleted after every visit.
- Persistent cookies, which will remain in place during multiple visits to the site.
- Third party cookies, which are used by partner websites that are embedded within our site or that we link to.
Session cookies
These enable you to perform essential functions on the site, such as remembering a repeat form field item within a browsing session. In addition, they help by limiting the need to transfer information across the Internet. They are not stored on your computer and will expire when you terminate your browser session.
Persistent cookies
These enable us to recognise anonymous repeat visitors to the site. By matching an anonymous, randomly generated identifier, a record can be taken of specific browsing information such as how you arrive at the site, the pages you view, options you select, and the path taken through the site. By monitoring this information we’re able to make improvements to the site, including the fixing of errors and the enhancement of content.
3rd Party cookies
If you go on to a web page that contains embedded content, for example from Facebook or YouTube, you may be sent cookies from these websites. We do not control the generation of these cookies, so we suggest that you check the individual third-party websites for more information about their cookies and how to manage them.
This site uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solution on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content.
For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page.
Cookies in use on this site
| Name | Provider | Purpose | Expiry |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | google.com | Stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached your site. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | 2 years |
| _gat | google.com | Google Analytics cookie. The Google Analytics tool collects anonymous information about how visitors use our websites, for example how many visitors came to our website and when, what browsers visitors use and how long visitors stay on the site. This data does not contain any information that is personal to you. | 10 minutes |
| _gid | google.com | Google Analytics cookie. The Google Analytics tool collects anonymous information about how visitors use our websites, for example how many visitors came to our website and when, what browsers visitors use and how long visitors stay on the site. This data does not contain any information that is personal to you. | 1 day |
| cookie_notice_accepted | This website | This type of cookie is used to keep track of your consent so that the short information popup about cookies is not shown again in the following pages or at your subsequent site visits. | 1 month |
Disabling cookies
As we’ve explained above, cookies help you to get the most out of our website. However, if you do wish to disable our cookies then please follow the instructions here: https://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/.
Please remember that if you do choose to disable cookies, you may find that certain sections of our website do not work properly.
More Information
Hopefully that has clarified things for you and as was previously mentioned if there is something that you aren’t sure whether you need or not it’s usually safer to leave cookies enabled in case it does interact with one of the features you use on our site.
