What are cookies? And why do we use them?

A cookie is a small file that is saved onto your computer or other device when you visit our website. It stores small pieces of information. For example, it will remember you’ve visited our site or performed a certain action.

We use cookies to help us improve your experience when you visit our website. For example, a cookie might store information so you don’t have to keep entering it. Cookies also let us know which pages of our site you visited and help us develop and market our services.

Cookies work in two main ways:

  • Persistent cookies – these stay valid, and will work until their expiry date (unless you delete them before they expire)
  • Session cookies – these expire when you close your web browser

The information we collect

Most of the cookies we use record the pages of our site you visit and any interactive elements (such as forms) that you use.

We don’t collect any information that can identify you personally.

How we use this information

We use cookie information to find out how our website is being used. We can learn which pages are being viewed and how many visitors are using the different sections of the site. This information helps us understand how useful the site is to our visitors, and how we can keep improving.

We use analytics tools provided by Google

Google analytics cookies track the number of unique users of the site. You can find more information about the data collected on the Google Analytics Privacy Policy.

The Google Analytics implementation on site uses third party cookies to correlate site usage data with broad, non-personally identifiable customer segments for the purposes of reviewing on-site usage and optimising user experience.

For more information, please review the following information from Google.

How to disable cookies that have been set

You can disable and remove the cookies if your browser supports this. To check and update your cookies settings, you will need to know what browser you are using and what version you have. You can usually find this out by opening the browser, then clicking on ‘Help’ and then ‘About’. This will give you information about the browser version you are using.

To manage your cookies, refer to your browser’s help section or visit the aboutcookies website.

Remember, if you amend your cookie settings, your browsing experience may change for the worse. For example, if you have set preferences on a website – such as your location for local news or weather forecasts – it will no longer remember these.

Changes to this policy

We occasionally update our cookie policy. You should visit this page periodically if you want to keep yourself informed. Last updated on 15 July 2017.