Our website uses cookies. A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we put on your computer, if you agree. These cookies allow us to distinguish you from other users of our website, they help us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and a lso allow us to improve our site. Cookies improve your browsing experience by:
- remembering settings, so you don’t have to keep re-entering them whenever you visit a new page
- remembering information you’ve given (e.g. your postcode) so you don’t need to keep entering it
- measuring how you use the website so we can make sure it meets your needs
They improve things by measuring how you use the website so we can make sure it meets your needs
Our cookies aren’t used to identify you personally. They’re just here to make the site work better for you. Indeed, you can manage and/or delete these small files as you wish.
To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html. Or please read on to find out more about how and where we use cookies.
How we use cookies
Our site uses cookies in several places – we’ve listed each of them below with more details about why we use them and how long they will last.
Measuring website usage (Google Analytics)
We use Google Analytics to collect information about how people use this site. We do this to make sure it’s meeting its users’ needs and to understand how we could do things better.
Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click on. We do not collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are. We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data.
The following cookies are set by Google Analytics:
| Name | Typical Content | Expires |
| _utma | randomly generated number | 2 years |
| _utmb | randomly generated number | 30 minutes |
| _utmc | randomly generated number | when you close your browser |
| _utmx | randomly generated number | 2 years |
Google’s privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html
Storing your preferences
Our site may in the future allow us to provide you with options to improve your visit – remembering information you put into a form for example. Currently the site sets a master cookie which identifies you from page to page to enable these features to happen. However, currently no data is stored or used by this cookie.
| Name | Typical Content | Expires |
| SESS | randomly generated number | 1 month |
Enabling a better experience
Our site uses a technology called Javascript to make the way things look more pleasing on the page. The site identifies if your browser has Javascript enabled and then sets a cookie so that it knows this is the case for the duration of your visit.
| Name | Typical Content | Expires |
| Has_js | randomly generated number | When you close your browser |
Giving you a mobile experience
Our site checks to see if you are using a browser on your mobile device. If so, we provide you with a version of the site that is easier to read and use on a smaller screen. The site then sets a cookie so that every page is then delivered in the mobile version.
| Name | Typical Content | Expires |
| Mobileplugin group | randomly generated number | When you close your browser |
How can you manage your cookies?
Browser settings: Most browsers can be altered to prevent your computer from accepting cookies, although this may mean that some of the features of this site (and other sites) will not work properly and may restrict your user experience.
These settings will typically be found in the ‘options’ or ‘preferences’ menu of your browser. In order to understand these settings, the following links may be helpful, otherwise you should use the ‘Help’ option in your browser for more details.
Turn off anonymous Google Analytics cookies: You can install a Google Analytics browser “plug in” to prevent the website sending information about your visit to Google Analytics. More information about this can be found below.
Other useful links
If you would like to find out more about cookies and their wider use, you may find the following links of interest:
The IAB has provided the following website to give information specifically about privacy issues around Internet advertising:
For further legal information about privacy issues, you may find these links useful:
