Cookies policy
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we may store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer or device. They cannot be used to identify you personally.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users of this service. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse the service and also allows us to improve our service to you.
Cookies 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; and
- 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
Types of cookies used
We use the following types of cookies:
- Google Analytics cookies – Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to this site and volume of usage.
You can find more detailed information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the tables below:
Required cookies
Site cookies
| Name | Purpose | Expiry |
|---|---|---|
| cookie_consent | A Boolean value used to remember if the user has dismissed the privacy information banner | No expiry |
Optional cookies
Google Analytics cookies
We use Google Analytics to collect information about how you use this service.
We store information about:
- the pages you visit and how long you spend on each page
- how you got to our services
- what you click on while you're visiting our sites
We do not:
- collect information that can be used to identify you; for example, we never receive your name or address
- make any attempt to find out the identities of people visiting the site
- allow the tools that we use to find out the identities of people visiting the site
- sell, trade or give your details to third parties, unless we are required to do it by law
All information we get through cookies and analytics will be treated in confidence.
We anonymise the last 3 digits of all user IP addresses for Google Analytics, so that we can ensure that you are protected (you can read more about how this works here). We can only see a general overview of which regions and cities you may come from, not where individuals access from.
Find out more about security and privacy in Google Analytics.
You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies.
| Name | Purpose | Expiry |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | This is used to understand and differentiate between different users. | 13 Months |
| _ga_<container-id> | Used to persist session state. Container ID is the identifier for the Google Analytics account being used. | 13 Months |
| _gid | _gid has a different ID for each page set on, and a timestamp. This assists with plotting user journeys. | 24 Hours |