Cookies

Cookies are small text files placed on to your computer by websites you visit. We use cookies to improve your experience with our website, and to allow us to track general usage of our website, so that we can improve it over time.

When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies.

They cannot be used to identify you personally.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

• Enabling a service to recognise your device so you don’t have to give the same information several times during one task.
• Recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don’t need to do it for every web page requested.
• Measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there’s enough capacity to ensure they are fast.

Our use of cookies

Cookies for managing your current visit:

Name: site_session
Typical content: randomly generated text
Expires: when user exits browser

Name: .ASPXAUTH
Typical content: randomly generated text
Expires: when user exits browser

Name: ASP.NET_SessionId
Typical content: randomly generated text
Expires: when user exits browser

Cookies for improving service

Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage. This is to ensure that the service is available when you want it and is fast.

Name: _utma
Typical content: randomly generated number
Expires: Two years

Name: _utmb
Typical content: randomly generated number
Expires: 30 minutes

Name: _utmc
Typical content: randomly generated number
Expires: When user exits browser

Name: _utmz
Typical content: randomly generated number and information on how the site was reached (e.g. directly or via a link, organic search or paid search).
Expires: 6 months

For further details on the cookies set by Google Analytics, please refer to the Google Code website.

From time to time, we may embed external content from third-party websites (e.g. Facebook and YouTube) within our website. These websites may utilise cookies and the privacy policy that will apply to such third-party content will be published on the website of that third-party content provider.

How to control and delete cookies

We do not use cookies to collect personal identifying information about you, however if you wish to restrict or block cookies set by our website, you can do this through your browser settings.

But please remember that if you do delete all your cookies, some features of our websites, for example remembering your login details, will not work and your experience on our website may be affected.

Your “Help” function on your browser should provide you with clear information about how to manage cookies. You can, for example, choose to block all cookies, or block cookies from specific websites.

If you would like to find out more about cookies you can visit a cookie website www.aboutcookies.org, which is run by the international law firm Pinsent Masons. It contains comprehensive information and step by step guidance on how to manage cookies.