What are Cookies?
A cookie is a small piece of data that a website can send to your browser, which in turn may store the cookie on your hard drive. Cookies can help website owners identify you as an Internet user and make visiting a website easier for you by saving your preferences while you visit the site. Cookies are designed to be read only by the website that provides them. They cannot be used to obtain data from a user’s hard drive, get a user’s email address or gather a user’s sensitive information.
What types of cookies are there?
There are four main types of cookies: strictly necessary cookies, performance cookies, functional cookies and targeting or advertising cookies.
- Strictly necessary cookies are essential for the running of a website. Without the use of these cookies, you may not be able to use some of the features of websites.
- Performance cookies monitor website performance and collect anonymous data on how visitors use a website. These cookies provide information to help improve how a website works.
- Functionality cookies are used to remember user preferences so that the website can be customised for them.
- Targeting or advertising cookies are used to target advertisements to the interests of users, based upon previous web browsing activity.
Additionally, these cookies can be broken down into two further sub-types.
- Session cookies are temporary, allowing the website to link the actions of a user during a browser session. A browser session starts when a user opens the browser window and finishes when they close the browser window. All session cookies expire and are deleted when the session finishes.
- Persistent cookies remain on a user’s device for a set period of time specified in the cookie. These can last after you have closed your browser and allow a website to remember your actions and preferences.
This website uses the following cookies:
| Type of cookie | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Strictly necessary cookies | These are cookies that are required for the operation of the website. They could include, for example, cookies that enable you to use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services. |
| Analytical/performance cookies | These cookies 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 continuously improve our website, for example by ensuring that visitors are finding the information they are looking for easily. |
| Functionality cookies | These are used to recognise you and your settings during your visit and when you return to our website. This could help us personalise our content for you, by remembering your preferences, as well as helping improve the speed and security of the website, and making sure we meet the needs of the people using it. By using the website you agree to our placement of functionality cookies. |
How do I disable cookies?
If you want to disable cookies, you can change your Internet browser settings to reject cookies. However, this may limit the functionality of our website and a large proportion of websites globally, as cookies are a standard part of most modern websites.
For more information about cookies, and their use on the internet, please visit www.gov.uk/help/cookies
For additional information about how to manage and disable cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org