What are cookies?

A cookie is a piece of information in the form of a very small text file that is placed on an internet user’s computer. It is generated by a web page server (which is basically the computer that operates the web site) and can be used by that server whenever the user visits the site. A cookie can be thought of as an internet user’s identification card, which tells a website when the user has returned.

Cookies can’t harm your computer and we don’t store any personally identifiable information about you on any of our cookies.

Why do we use cookies?

We use cookies for two main reasons. First, we use them to enable us to give you a better experience i.e. to remember when you’ve logged in, and to remember not to show you a message you’ve already seen, for instance (the cookie message at the top of the page is a good example of this).  Because of this, turning cookies off for our website may affect your experience negatively. The other use is to see how you use our website.  This way, we can see which pages you visit most often, which pages are broken and various other bits of information.

No cookies contains any of your personal information; it’s totally anonymous.

What cookies do we use?

_ga; _gid; _gat_UA; gwcc; NID; and _dc_gtm_UA-155531947-1;

These are cookies used by Google to make notes of what you’re doing on the Website and to help customise adverts on Google properties, such as Google Search. They are totally anonymous and don’t save or send any personally identifiable information at all.

cookieconsent_status:

Keeps track of users choice for the Cookie Consent message.

Can I turn cookies off?

Absolutely. It is usually possible to stop your browser accepting cookies, or to stop it accepting cookies from a particular website. However, this will likely affect your website experience; for instance we cannot tell if you are signed in without using cookies.

All modern browsers allow you to change your cookie settings. These settings will typically be found in the ‘options’ or ‘preferences’ menu of your browser. In order to understand these settings, the following links may be helpful, otherwise you should use the ‘Help’ option in your browser for more details.

To manage cookies linked to targeting / advertising activities, visit Your Online Choices.

To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit Google Analytics Opt Out.