When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

enabling a service to recognise your device so you don't have to give the same information several times during one task
recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested
measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there's enough capacity to ensure they are fast
Manage your own cookies

You can manage these small files yourself in your browser settings

Our use of cookies

Cookies to enhance your experience

We set a session cookie that allows us to maintain the state of your visit whilst viewing our web site and track the performance of our website and servers. This may include a user preference or current progress in a series of steps.

Name	Typical content	Expiry
ASP.NET_SessionId	randomly generated alphanumeric identifier	when user exits browser
ARRAffinity	randomly generated alphanumeric identifier	when user exits browser
ai_session	randomly generated alphanumeric identifier	30 minutes
ai_user	randomly generated alphanumeric identifier	1 year

 

Add This 

We also make use of 'add this' buttons to make it easier for you to share content from the website with others via email or social networks.  This service sets the following cookies:

Name	Typical content	Expires after
__atuvc	Alphanumeric	Two years
__atuvs	Alphanumeric	Two years
loc	Alphanumeric	Two years
uid	Alphanumeric	Two years
um	long string	Two years
vc	Numeric	Two years
bt2	Alphanumeric	256 days
di2	Alphanumeric	Two years

For further details on the cookies set by Add This, please refer to the Add this website.

 

YouTube

YouTube videos embedded on the website sets the following cookies:

Name	Typical content	Expiry
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE	Alphanumeric	Seven months
use_hitbox	Alphanumeric	When user exits browser
pref	Alphanumeric	10 years

For further details on the cookies set by YouTube, please refer to the Google website.

 

Google Analytics

Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage. This to ensure that the service is available when you want it and fast.

Name	Typical content	Expiry
_ga	Randomly generated number beginning GA.	Two years
_gat	Randomly generated number	30 minutes
_gid	Randomly generated number beginning GA	30 minutes
_utmc	Randomly generated number	When user exits browser
_utmz	Randomly generated number + info on how the site was reached (e.g. directly or via a link, organic search or paid search)	Six months

For further details on the cookies set by Google Analytics, please refer to the Google website

 

Other cookies

If you share our content via the social shares, each platform will add its own cookies. You can find out more about them here:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram