A cookie is a piece of information that a website transfers to an appropriate file of the browser on your computer’s hard disk so that the website can remember who you are. Cookies can help a website to arrange its content to match your preferred interests more quickly – most major websites use cookies.

Note that Cookies alone cannot be used to identify you.

A cookie will typically contain the name of the domain from which the cookie has come; the “lifetime” of the cookie; and an identification indicator, usually a unique random number.

Three types of cookies are used on many websites including ours:

Session Cookies are temporary cookies that remain in the cookie file of your browser until you leave our site when they are deleted automatically. They allow you to carry information across pages of the site and avoid having to re-enter information. 

Persistent Cookies remain in the cookie file of your browser for much longer – though how long will depend on the lifetime of the specific cookie and you can often specify their lifetime from within your browser.

They are used to:

• Help us recognise you as a unique number when you return to the website. Note: you cannot be identified personally when you return to the website.
• Compile anonymous statistics that allow us to understand how users use our site and to help us improve the structure of our website. We cannot identify you personally in this way.

Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings, usually via a drop-down menu. See the help files of your browser for information on how to do this. 

For instance, you may delete or block all cookies from this site, but parts of the site may not work if you if you block all of them in the first place. A good compromise is to allow cookies for each session only for them to always be automatically deleted when leaving a site.

To opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout