Use of Cookies

Last Updated: 22/05/18

What are cookies?

We may collect information using “cookies.” Cookies are small data files stored on the hard drive of your computer or mobile device by a website. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer or mobile device until you delete them) to provide you with a more personal and interactive experience on our Site.

We use first-party cookies, served directly by us to your computer or mobile device, which are used only by us to recognise your computer or mobile device when it revisits our Site.

Cookies we use

Our Site uses the following types of cookies for the purposes set out below:

Type of cookie

Purpose

Essential Cookies

These cookies are essential to provide you with services available through our Site and to enable you to use some of its features. [For example, they help the content of the pages you request load quickly]. Without these cookies, the services that you have asked for cannot be provided, and we only use these cookies to provide you with those services.

Functionality Cookies

These cookies allow our Site to remember choices you make when you use our Site, such as remembering your language preferences, or remembering the changes you make to other parts of our Site which you can customise. The purpose of these cookies is to provide you with a more personal experience and to avoid you having to re-enter your preferences every time you visit our Site.

Analytics and Performance Cookies

These cookies are used to collect information about traffic to our Site and how users use our Site. The information gathered does not identify any individual visitor. It includes the number of visitors to our Site, the websites that referred them to our Site, the pages they visited on our Site, what time of day they visited our Site, whether they have visited our Site before, and other similar information. We use this information to help operate our Site more efficiently, to gather broad demographic information and to monitor the level of activity on our Site.

We use Google Analytics for this purpose. Google Analytics uses its own cookies. It is only used to improve how our Site works. You can find out more information about Google Analytics cookies here: https://developers.google.com/analytics/resources/concepts/gaConceptsCookies

You can find out more about how Google protects your data here: www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html.

You can prevent the use of Google Analytics relating to your use of our Site by downloading and installing the browser plugin available via this link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB

Targeted and advertising cookies

These cookies track your browsing habits to enable us to show advertising which is more likely to be of interest to you. These cookies use information about your browsing history to group you with other users who have similar interests. Based on that information, and with our permission, third party advertisers can place cookies to enable them to show adverts which we think will be relevant to your interests while you are on third party websites.

You can disable cookies which remember your browsing habits and target advertising at you by visiting http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/your-ad-choices. If you choose to remove targeted or advertising cookies, you will still see adverts but they may not be relevant to you. Even if you do choose to remove cookies by the companies listed at the above link, not all companies that serve online behavioural advertising are included in this list, and so you may still receive some cookies and tailored adverts from companies that are not listed.

Social Media Cookies

Social Media Cookies These cookies are used when you share information using a social media sharing button or “like” button on our Site or you link your account or engage with our content on or through a social networking website such as Facebook, Twitter or Google+. The social network will record that you have done this.

Disabling cookies

You can typically remove or reject cookies via your browser settings. In order to do this, follow the instructions provided by your browser (usually located within the “settings,” “help” “tools” or “edit” facility). Many browsers are set to accept cookies until you change your settings.

If you do not accept our cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of our Site. For example, we may not be able to recognise your computer or mobile device.