Cookies Policy

Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site.

A cookie is a small text file which is placed onto your computer (or other electronic device) when you access our website.

We use cookies on this website to:

  • recognise you whenever you visit this website (this speeds up your access to the website as you do not have to log in each time);
  • obtain information about your preferences, online movements and use of the internet;
  • carry out research and statistical analysis to help improve our content, products and services and to help us better understand our visitor requirements and interests;
  • target our marketing and advertising campaigns more effectively by providing interest-based advertisements that are personalised to your interests; and
  • make your online experience more efficient and enjoyable.

The information we obtain from our use of cookies will not usually contain your personal data. Although we may obtain information about your computer or other electronic device such as your IP address, your browser and/or other internet log information, this will not usually identify you personally. In certain circumstances we may collect personal information about you—but only where you voluntarily provide it (eg by completing an online form).

We use the following types of cookies:

  • Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website.
  • Analytical or performance cookies. These allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
  • Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
  • Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests.

Apart from in the case of strictly necessary cookies, we will need your consent in order to use cookies on this website.

First and third party cookies

First party cookies are cookies set by our website. Third party cookies are cookies on our website that are set by another website, such as where we have adverts on our website or use Facebook pixels so that we can show you relevant content from us when you are on Facebook.

 More detail about our cookies

The table below provides more information about the cookies we use and why:

Cookie Purpose for the cookie
Google Analytics This is a web analytics service provided by Google Inc which uses cookies to show us how visitors found and explored our site, and how we can enhance their experience. It provides us with information about the behaviour of our visitors (eg how long they stayed on the site, the average number of pages viewed) and also tells us how many visitors we have had.
CookieNamePurpose
Cookie preferencecivicCookieControlThis cookie is used to remember a user’s choice about cookies on our website. Where users have previously indicated a preference, that user’s preference will be stored in this cookie.
Google Analytics_utma
_utmb
_utmc
_utmz _ga _gat _gid
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited.

Security breach notification form cookie         ASP.NET_SessionId  This cookie is essential for the breach notification form – the form that public electronic communications service providers use to notify the ICO of a security breach – to operate. It is set only for those people using the form. This cookie is deleted when you close your browser.
Visit the Microsoft website 
YouTube cookies We embed videos from our official YouTube channel using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. This mode may set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player, but YouTube will not store personally-identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode.
Read more at YouTube’s embedding videos information page.

How to turn off cookies or alter settings

You can alter your cookie preferences at any time by going to the cookie consent button, which pops up when you enter the website and hanging the relevant setting to ‘off’.

If you do not want to accept cookies, you can also change your browser settings so that cookies are not accepted. If you do this, please be aware that you may lose some of the functionality of this website.

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

For further information about cookies and how to disable them please go to the Information Commissioner’s webpage on cookies: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies/.

Except for essential cookies, all cookies will expire after 1 year.