Cookies
We are always looking for ways to improve our website and the information that we provide to our visitors. As a result, and like most websites, we use small files (known as ‘cookies’) which are placed onto your computer and collect information about how users browse our websites. The cookies will also remember any notifications that you’ve already seen so that we don’t show them to you again.
It is really important for you to know that:
- cookies from our website aren’t used to identify you in any way
- you will see a message on the site before we store a cookie on your computer
If you want to find out more information on cookies from an independent source then we would suggest you look at the Information Commissioners Officer (ICO) website which has lots of useful information including how to control cookies through your own web browser. For your convenience we have included a link here – how to manage cookies.
Measuring website usage (Google Analytics)
In order to help us understand the information that the cookies collect and identify areas to improve the information we provide on our website we use a service called Google Analytics which is operated by Google, a third party. Please be assured that this information can’t be used in any way to identify you.
Google Analytics stores information about:
- the pages visited on our websites
- how long visitors spend on each page of our websites
- how a visitor found our websites
- what a visitor clicks on while they are on our websites
Google Analytics sets the following cookies:
Universal Analytics
Name |
Purpose |
Expires |
_ga |
This helps us count how many people visit our websites by tracking if you’ve visited before |
2 years |
_gid |
This helps us count how many people visit our websites by tracking if you’ve visited before |
24 hours |
_gat |
Used to manage the rate at which page view requests are made |
10 minutes |
Google Analytics
Name |
Purpose |
Expires |
_utma |
Like _ga, this lets us know if you’ve visited before, so we can count how many of our visitors are new to our websites or to a certain page |
2 years |
_utmb |
This works with _utmc to calculate the average length of time you spend on our websites |
30 minutes |
_utmc |
This works with _utmb to calculate when you close your browser |
when you close your browser |
_utmz |
This tells us how you reached our websites (for example from another website or a search engine) |
6 months |
Making secure connections to websites
Your browser uses cookies to make secure connections to websites with a ‘https’ URL. There are different versions for different levels of security.
Name |
Purpose |
Expires |
TLSVersion |
Tells us the highest version of TLS your browser uses so we can decide which versions to keep supporting |
When you close your browser |