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, a computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.
Cookies are small text files that websites save to your computer. The cookies used by government websites don't contain any of your personal information, and we can't use them to find out who you are.
These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:
The list below shows all of the cookies that are set by this website and the third-party services we use. If you have any queries about these cookies or would like more information about them, please get in touch.
These are cookies set by this website. Some are necessary to the functionality of the site, others provide information to us that we analyse to monitor and improve the site. These first-party cookies do not store or collect any personal information or anything that makes you personally identifiable to us. Typically, the cookies generate a random, unique number to store information about a user.
| Name of cookie | Type of cookie | Expiry period | Reason for use of cookie | Description |
| JSESSIONID | Persistent cookie | 1 Year | Your visit | Used to uniquely identify your session when you interact with the website. |
| _ga | Persistent cookie | 2 years | Analytics | Used to improve our understanding of how people use our website and services, through web analytics |
| _gid | Persistent cookie | 2 years | Analytics | Used to improve our understanding of how people use our website and services, through web analytics |
| _gat | Persistent cookie | At end of session | Analytics | Used to improve our understanding of how people use our website and services, through web analytics |
There are some areas of our site that make use of shopping carts or forms technology which at times have to make use of cookies - the ones used on a permanent basis are detailed in the cookies table. From time to time we may add functionality to our site e.g. surveys, comparisons etc., and these often come from 3rd parties - we will endeavour to ensure full disclosure of any cookies.
Accepting the use of login functionality, without exception, you must explicitly agree to the setting of specific cookies, which allow this area to function. The cookies in use for secure areas are provided within the terms and conditions of use for the appropriate area.
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 the About Cookies website, 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 have an impact upon 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.