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Cookies & Privacy

Our website uses cookies as soon as you click on one of our links. We advise you to read below to prevent or remove any cookies that may come from one of our websites.

Below is a link to the Information commissioners web page where you can find further information
www.ico.gov.uk/cookies

Below is an extract from their document which specifically refers to how our website operates.

“The Information Commissioner does however recognise that currently many websites set cookies as soon as a user accesses the site. This makes obtaining consent before the cookie is set difficult. Wherever possible the setting of cookies should be delayed until users have had the opportunity to understand what cookies are being used and make their choice. Where this is not possible at present websites should be able to demonstrate that they are doing as much as possible to reduce the amount of time before the user receives information about cookies and is provided with options.”

Cookies

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, your computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies, and JavaScript code. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

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

  • 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 our services, so they can be made easier to use and there is enough capacity to ensure they are fast.
  • Analysing anonymised data to help us understand how people interact with our services so we can make them better.

You can manage these small files and learn more about them from the Directgov article, ‘ Internet browser cookies – what they are and how to manage them‘.

You may refuse to accept cookies by activating the setting on your browser which allows you to refuse the setting of cookies. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our site. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you visit our site.

For more information on deleting and controlling cookies visit AboutCookies.org.

Similarly you can set up your browser to disable JavaScript – please see your browser’s help pages for instructions on how to do this.

Cookies for social media

Both Twitter and Facebook use cookie technology. For more information, please see the Twitter Privacy Policy and Facebook Privacy Policy.

How to control and delete cookies

We will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you.

However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our websites, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The ‘Help’ function within your browser should tell you how.

Alternatively, you may wish to visit AboutCookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your machine as well as more general information about cookies.

Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of our website.

If you wish to view your cookie code, just click on a cookie to open it. You’ll see a short string of text and numbers. The numbers are your identification card, which can only be seen by the server that gave you the cookie.

For information on how to do this on the browser or your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.
To opt-out of third-parties collecting any data regarding your interaction on our website, please refer to their websites for further information.