When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.
These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:
- enabling a service to recognise your device so you don’t have to give the same information several times during one task
- recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don’t need to do it for every web page requested
- measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there’s enough capacity to ensure they are fast
- analysing anonymised data to help us understand how people interact with our digital services so we can make them better
- You can manage these small files and learn more about them from the article, Internet Browser cookies- what they are and how to manage them
If you’d like to learn how to remove cookies set on your device, visit: http://www.aboutcookies.org/Default.aspx?page=1
‘First-party’ cookies
| Name | Purpose | Content | Expiry |
|---|---|---|---|
| csscached | This remembers what style version you have been sent. | Numbers | Years |
Third-party cookies
| Name | Purpose | Content | Expiry |
|---|---|---|---|
| __utma | Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage, e.g. website statistics. This to ensure that the service is available when you want it and fast (More Info) | Randomly generated number | 2 years |
| _utmb | Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage, e.g. website statistics. This to ensure that the service is available when you want it and fast (More Info) | Randomly generated number | 30 minutes |
| __utmc | Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage, e.g. website statistics. This to ensure that the service is available when you want it and fast (More Info) | Randomly generated number | when user exits browser |
| __utmz | Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage, e.g. website statistics. This to ensure that the service is available when you want it and fast (More Info) | Randomly generated number | 2 years |
| locale | These cookies are created by Facebook, they let the website know if you’ve liked something or logged in to your Facebook account. In this case they are present because the ‘Like’ button is being used on the website. (More Info) | Randomly generated number | 4 days |
| datr | These cookies are created by Facebook, they let the website know if you’ve liked something or logged in to your Facebook account. In this case they are present because the ‘Like’ button is being used on the website. (More Info) | Randomly generated number | 727 days |
| lu | These cookies are created by Facebook, they let the website know if you’ve liked something or logged in to your Facebook account. In this case they are present because the ‘Like’ button is being used on the website. (More Info) | Randomly generated number | 727 days |
| guest_id | These cookies are created by Twitter, they let the website know if you’ve logged in to your Twitter account. In this case they are present because the ‘Tweet’ button is being used on the website. (More Info) | Randomly generated number | 689 days |
| pid | These cookies are created by Twitter, they let the website know if you’ve logged in to your Twitter account. In this case they are present because the ‘Tweet’ button is being used on the website. (More Info) | Randomly generated number | 721 days |
| twll | These cookies are created by Twitter, they let the website know if you’ve logged in to your Twitter account. In this case they are present because the ‘Tweet’ button is being used on the website. (More Info) | Randomly generated number | 3645 days |
| k | These cookies are created by Twitter, they let the website know if you’ve logged in to your Twitter account. In this case they are present because the ‘Tweet’ button is being used on the website. (More Info) | Randomly generated number | 4 days |
| PREF | This is used by Google Translate to remember what language you have chosen to view the site in. | Randomly generated number |
How to control and delete cookies
We will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you.
However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our websites, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The ‘Help’ function within your browser should tell you how.
Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your machine as well as more general information about cookies.
Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of our website.
If you wish to view your cookie code, just click on a cookie to open it. You’ll see a short string of text and numbers. The numbers are your identification card, which can only be seen by the server that gave you the cookie.
For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.
To opt-out of third-parties collecting any data regarding your interaction on our website, please refer to their websites for further information.