Cookies are small text files that may be placed on your computer by websites that you visit. They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site.
A cookie often includes an anonymous unique identifier. Any website you visit may send cookies to your browser if your browser’s preferences allow it.
You can decide if you want to accept cookies by changing the settings on your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set. Switching off cookies will still allow you to view the majority of content on our site, although it may restrict your use of our interactive tools. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit http://www.ico.gov.uk.
The table below explains the cookies we use and why.
| Cookie | Cookie Name | Purpose | Expires | More Information |
| Google Analytics | _utma | This cookie is used to determine unique visitors to your site and it is updated with each page view. Additionally, this cookie is provided with a unique ID that Google Analytics uses to ensure both the validity and accessibility of the cookie as an extra security measure. | 2 years | Google Analytics’ privacy information |
| _utmb | This cookie is used to establish and continue a user session with our site. | 30 minutes | ||
| _utmc | This cookie operated in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether or not to establish a new session for the user. | when the session expires | ||
| _utmz | This cookie stores the type of referral used by the visitor to reach your site, whether via a direct method, a referring link, a website search, or a campaign such as an ad or an email link. It is used to calculate search engine traffic, ad campaigns and page navigation within your own site. The cookie is updated with each page view to your site. | 6 months |
Third Party Cookies
We sometimes embed content e.g. slide shows, surveys and videos from websites such as YouTube, SurveyMonkey and SlideShare. This is not a complete list of the services we currently use, or may use in the future but these are the most common.
When you visit a page with content embedded from such websites, additional cookies may be transferred to your computer. We do not control these cookies and you can check the relevant third party website for more information about these.
We use social buttons on this website e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn or Pinterest which enable users to share our web pages. These buttons work with external scripts that are outwith our website and may collect information about your visit. We do not control these scripts and you can check the respective policies of each of these sites for more information.