Cookies
INFORMATION ABOUT OUR USE OF COOKIES
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.
We may use the following cookies:
- Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.
- Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:
| Name | Function | Expires |
| _gat | This cookie name is associated with Google Universal Analytics, according to documentation it is used to throttle the request rate – limiting the collection of data on high traffic sites. It expires after 10 minutes. The main purpose of this cookie is: Performance | Expires after 10 minutes |
| _ga | This cookie name is asssociated with Google Universal Analytics – which is a significant update to Google’s more commonly used analytics service. The new service reduces the reliance on cookies in general, and only sets this and one other – _gat, although Google also say data can be collected without setting any cookies. This cookie is used to distinguishes unique users by assigning a randomly generated number as a client identifier. It is included in each page request in a site and used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data for the sites analytics reports. By default it is set to expire after 2 years, although this is customisable by website owners. The main purpose of this cookie is: Performance | Expires after 2 years |
| wordpress_test_cookie | Used on sites built with WordPress. Tests whether or not the browser has cookies enabled. The main purpose of this cookie is: Strictly Necessary | End of session |
| cc_cookie_decline | To remember whether the user has enabled or disabled cookies for this website. The main purpose of this cookie is: Performance | End of session |
| cc_cookie_accept | This cookie is used to control the appearance of the cookies information banner. This cookie is set when a user clicks ‘accept’ on the information banner. It expires after 1 year and is not set again unless a user changes their cookie settings. The main purpose of this cookie is: Performance | Expires after 1 year |
Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.
You can block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our site.
