What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files, which websites place on your computer when you visit a specific website. Cookies are used on websites to help visitors navigate around them effectively. They are also used to perform certain vital functions within a website. You can disable cookies through your internet browser – however this may impact on how websites work.

Cookies also provide information to website owners to analyse visitor behaviour patterns, e.g. how many visitors view a particular page.

More information about cookies can be found here.

Our use of Cookies
When someone visits our website, we collect standard internet log information and details of visitor behaviour patterns. We do this to find out things such as the number of visitors to the various parts of the particular site.

We collect this information in a way which does not identify anyone. We do not make any attempt to find out the identities of those visiting any of our websites. We shall not associate any data gathered from our sites with any personally identifying information from any source. If we do want to collect personally identifiable information through our websites, we shall be upfront about this. We shall make it clear when we collect personal information and shall explain what we intend to do with it.

Cookies are either:

a) Session cookies: these are only stored on your computer during your web session and are automatically deleted when you close your browser. They usually store an anonymous session ID allowing you to browse a website without having to log into each page but they do not collect any personal data from your computer; or

b) Persistent cookies: a persistent cookie is stored as a file on your computer and it remains there when you close your web browser. The cookie can be read by the website that created it when you visit that website again.

Cookies can also be categorised as follows:

c) Strictly necessary cookies: these cookies are essential to enable you to use the website effectively, such as when buying a product and/ or service – and therefore cannot be turned off. These cookies do not gather information about you that could be used for marketing nor remembering where you have been on the internet;

d) Performance cookies: these cookies enable us to monitor and improve the performance of our website. For example, they allow us to count visits, identify traffic sources and see which parts of the site are most popular.

e) Functionality cookies: these cookies allow our website to remember choices you make and provide enhanced features. For instance, we may be able to provide you with news or updates relevant to the services you use. They may also be used to provide services you have requested such as viewing a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect is usually anonymised.

Third parties
Please note that third parties who advertise on our website (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services, such as 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. For more information, please see our privacy policy.