Cookie Policy

A cookie is a small file that is downloaded onto your device when you visit a website, which means the website can recognise your device if you return to it.

Cookies are used to:

  • recognise your device, so you don’t have to give the same information several times during the same online task
  • measure how you use the site, so it can be updated and improved based on your needs
  • provide data to help understand how a website and its services are used · recognise where you have already given your username and password, so you don’t need to do it for every visit

Cookies can’t be used to identify you as an individual.

Essential Cookies

Essential cookies are needed to ensure our website works properly. We don’t need to ask permission to use these. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site might not work.

Name: cookieBar 

Purpose: CookieBar is a lightweight library for showing a brief message at the top or bottom of the screen. 

Expires: 1 year 

 

Performance cookies

Performance cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources, so that we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. If you don’t allow these cookies, we won’t know when you have visited our site, and won’t be able to monitor its performance.

Google Signals

This site uses Google signals. This helps us to better understand how you use our site on different devices and your demographics and interests, if you’re logged into your Google account and have accepted advertising personalisation.

All Google Analytics data is aggregated and anonymised. It is retained within Google Analytics for a maximum of 24 months.

Name: _ga 

Purpose: Used to distinguish users on a domain. 

Expires: 1 year 

 

Name: _ga_BYWZ2ZQ98Y 

Purpose: Used to persist session state. 

Expires: 1 year 

 

Name: _gat 

Purpose: Used to reduce the number of user requests. 

Expires: 10 minutes 

 

Name: _gid 

Purpose: Used to distinguish users. 

Expires: 24 hours

 

Marketing and third-party cookies

Marketing cookies

Facebook (Meta)

Facebook (Meta) Pixel helps us with measuring how effective our Facebook (Meta) adverts are. We’re then able to use this information to improve our marketing. Using Facebook (Meta) Pixel doesn’t allow us to identify you as an individual. You can read more about Facebook (Meta) cookies and managing your advert preferences.

Third-party cookies

We embed media such as YouTube videos on some of our pages. The suppliers of these services may also set cookies on your device when you visit the pages where we have used this type of content. These are known as third-party cookies. We have no control over third-party cookies.

You can read the third-party websites’ cookie policies for more information about the cookies they collect.

Giving permission to collect Performance and/or Functional cookies

Turn on the performance and/or functional cookies on the cookie banner to give us permission to store those cookies on your device.

You can change your cookie settings in your browser. For instructions, check the support website for your browser.

Further reading

Cookies and similar technologies |Information Commissioner’s Office

Cookie policy updated on 5th September 2023