This website puts small text files known as ‘cookies’ onto your computer.

This policy explains what cookies we use and their purpose. It also gives you some information on how to reject and remove cookies.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small data files sent by a website’s server to a user’s computer and stored there. They can be used for a range of purposes, such as tailoring a website for a particular user, storing user preferences and login information, and improving the website experience.

Essential and non-essential cookies

Cookies can be categorised as essential or non-essential.

Essential: these cookies are necessary to provide an online service (i.e. this website) which you have requested. The website will not function properly without them.

Non-essential: these are any cookies that do not fall within the definition of essential. They’re often used to analyse how websites are used or to set preferences.

Session and persistent cookies

Cookies are classed as either ‘session’ or ‘persistent’, depending on how long they last after they are placed on your browser.

Session: these last for as long as you keep your browser open. They expire when you close your browser.

Persistent: these expire at a fixed point in time or if you manually delete them from your browser.

Cookies used on our website

The table below summarises the cookies we use on this site to help make sure our website delivers information and services securely.

Cookie, Name, Purpose, Basic Purpose, Duration

Cookie Permission, CookieInit, Used to register a unique ID once the ‘Accept’ button has been hit and triggers Google Analytics to start tracking, Enable Google Analytics Cookies, 10 years

Google Analytics, _ga, Used to register a unique ID to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website, Statistics, 2 years

Google Analytics, _gat, Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate, Performance of website, 10 mins

Google Analytics, _gid, Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website, Statistics , 1 day

How do I change my Cookie Settings?

You may choose to disable cookies, receive a warning before a cookie is placed on your computer, and erase cookies from your local storage through use of options or preferences menus in your browser. It is possible, however, that some parts of this website will not operate correctly if you disable the cookie feature.

You may prevent your data from being used by us via Google Analytics. You can do this by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on for your web browser. This can be downloaded from http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set, visit www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.