What is in a cookie?
Most websites you visit will use cookies in order to improve your user experience by enabling that website to ‘remember’ you, either for the duration of your visit or for repeat visits.
A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device by a website’s server and only that server will be able to retrieve or read the contents of that cookie. Each cookie is unique to your web browser. It will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier and the site name and some digits and numbers.
Why are cookies used?
The information kept in cookies is used to improve your experience when using our websites, for example:
o Enabling a website to recognise your device so you don’t have to give the same information several times during one task.
o Recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don’t need to do it for every web page requested.
o Measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there’s enough capacity to ensure they work correctly and respond quickly.
o Analysing anonymised data to help us understand how people interact with our services so we can make them better.
o Some websites may use cookies to enable them to target their advertising or marketing messages based for example, on your location and/or browsing habits.
o Cookies may be set by the website you are visiting or they may also be set by other websites who provide content on the page you are viewing (known as third party cookies).
What to do if you don’t want cookies to be set
Some people find the idea of a website storing information on their computer or mobile device a bit intrusive, particularly when this information is stored and used by a third party without them knowing. Although this is generally quite harmless you may not, for example, want to see advertising that has been targeted to your interests.
Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org
Information we collect
In operating our website we may collect and process the following data about you:
o Details of your visits to our website and the resources that you access.
o Information you provide by filling in forms on our website, such as ‘Contact us’ forms.
o Information provided to us when you communicate with us for any reason.
Any personal information you send to us through our website will be collected and stored for the use it was intended. For example if you use our feedback form to submit a request, we will use the contact details you provide to get in touch and discuss with you the best way to deal with the matter.
Additional Third Party Cookies
To support our services, we sometimes embed videos and content from websites such as YouTube and Twitter. Pages with this type of embedded content may present cookies from such websites. Similarly, when you use one of the share buttons on this website, a cookie may be set by the service you have chosen to share content through.
We do not completely control the issuing of such cookies, and customising cookie setting on this website may not block cookies from those websites. You should check the relevant third party website for more information about these.
The Adobe Flash Player, used to provide services such as playing videos or games, is also capable of storing information on your device. However, these cookies cannot be controlled through your web browser.
Some web browser manufacturers are developing solutions to allow you to control these through your browser. If your current browser does not support this, and you wish to restrict or block Flash Cookies, then you must do this on the Adobe website.
Please be aware that restricting the use of Flash Cookies may affect the features available to you, for example, the auto-resume feature when playing some videos.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics to measuring how many people are using our service, so we can make it easier to use and assess the content that is needed.
Analysing the anonymised data helps us understand how people interact with our services so we can make them better.
You can change Google Analytics tracking across all websites by visiting tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Links to other sites
All links are provided for information and convenience only. No responsibility is accepted for any content or programs provided or used in any other websites you open from within this website. External websites can change link locations, please report any broken links.
