Cookies

What are cookies and why use them?

A ‘Cookie’ is a small file of letters and numbers (text) that is downloaded to your computer/device when you visit a website. They are widely used in order to make websites easy to use, useful and reliable as well as to provide information to the owners of the site about how it is being used. We do not use cookies to identify you personally. You can manage how cookies are stored on your computer or device and further guidance is provided at the end of this notice. Some cookies are necessary to enable you to use a website so if you delete these you may find that you lose some functionality

How do we use cookies?

We use cookies to enable the website features to work as intended and to provide some analytical information about how people interact with our website. Further information about each of the cookies used and the reason for having them may be found below.

Measuring website usage (Google Analytics)

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how people use this site. We do this to help us make sure that it is meeting your needs and to understand how we could do it better.

Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got there and what links you follow. 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.

You can opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics by visiting http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

More information about Google Analytics and cookies usage can be found at: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/collection/analyticsjs/cookie-usage

How long will cookies stay on your device

In the table below, we have provided a summary of each cookie’s purpose and the date when the cookie will expire if you do not do anything yourself.

How long will cookies stay on your device

In the table below, we have provided a summary of each cookie’s purpose and the date when the cookie will expire if you do not do anything yourself.

Name Purpose Expires
_utma Used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing _utma cookies exist. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. 2 years from set / update
_utmb Used to determine new sessions/visits. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utmb cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. 30 mins from set / update
-utmt Used to throttle the request rate for the service – limiting the collection of data on high traffic sites and improving performance. 10 minutes
_utmz 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. 6 months from set/update
_ga Used to distinguish unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the site’s analytics reports. 2 years
_gat Used to throttle the request rate – limiting the collection of data on high traffic sites and improving performance 1 minute
_gat_gtag_[property_id] The GA tracking ID allows the creation of up to 50 different views in Analytics to show data in relation to the website 1 minute
_gid Used to distinguish users 24 hours

What happened when I clicked on the cookie banner?

When you clicked on the cookie banner, you gave consent and accepted the cookies that would be placed on your device through your use of the website. You can manage how cookies are stored on your computer or device, as set out below.

How can I control what cookies are on my computer/device?

Most web browsers allow some control of cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, visit www.aboutcookies.org/how-to-control-cookies/ or www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies .

I would like further information, who do I contact?

If you’d like to learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit the ICO website: https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/online/cookies/