Cookies
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 also help us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also 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.
Our cookies aren’t used to identify you personally. They’re just here to make the site work better for you. In fact, 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're on the site, how you got here and what you click on. We don't collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this information can't be used to identify who you are. We don't allow Google to use or share our analytics data.
The following cookies are set by Google Analytics:
| Name | Typical Content | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | Randomly generated token. | 2 years |
Google's privacy policy is available at: http://www.google.com/privacypolicy.html
Improving site experience
So we can ensure that our site works well for everybody, we track anonymous information about your browser that enables us to show content in the best format for each user. The following cookie allows us to detect the capabilities of your browser:
| Name | Typical content | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| has_js | If you have JavaScript enabled, this cookie will have the value "1". If you do not have JavaScript enabled, the cookie is not set. | 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) won't work properly and it might restrict your user experience.
These settings will typically be found in the 'options' or 'preferences' menu of your browser. 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. You'll find more information about this below.
Other useful links
If you'd like to find out more about cookies and their wider use, you might 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:
