This policy was updated on 13 October 2021.
Our website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our website. This helps us provide you with a good experience when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our website. By continuing to browse the website, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
How this website uses cookies
What is a cookie?
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive, these cookies do not contain any identifiable pieces of information.
What we use cookies for:
1. Improving our website
For statistical purposes only, we track how many individual unique users we receive and how often they visit our website. We collect anonymous data which tells us which of our pages are most frequently visited and by which types of users and from which countries. This allows us to see which content is more popular than others. In order to do this, we use a web analytics tool called Google Analytics.
2. Ensuring our online advertising is targeted and relevant
From time to time we may engage in advertising on other websites to promote this website. The advertising partners we use may serve ads that it believes are most likely to be of interest to you, based on information about your visit to this and other websites (this information is anonymous in that it does not include your name, street address, email address or telephone number).
In order to do this, our advertising partner may need to place a cookie on your computer. Furthermore, in order to identify that you are part of the relevant target audience, they may identify that you have previously visited this website by using a cookie dropped from this website (this is called re-targeting).
These advertising cookies are typically referred to as 'third party cookies' because the advertising and tracking are carried out by a 'third party'.
For more information about this type of online behavioural advertising, about cookies, and about how to turn this feature off, please visit www.youronlinechoices.co.uk.
What cookies we use:
Strictly necessary cookies: these are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.
Analytical/performance cookies: they 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. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
Active Consent
We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners who may combine it with other information that you’ve provided to them or that they’ve collected from your use of their services. Please note: choosing not to accept cookies could affect your website experience. Taking no action within the cookie banner pop up and continuing to use this website will be considered as an acceptance of our cookie policy. This is called 'active consent’ which is a cookie consent model that assumes the user has consented from their individual actions, not with verbal or written consent. The site will already have cookies or other tracking technologies in place by default upon arrival, and it is up to the user to turn those off.
You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below:
How can you manage your cookies?
Browser settings
Most browsers can be altered to prevent your computer from accepting cookies, although this may mean that some of the features of this website (and other websites) will not work properly and may restrict your user experience.These settings will typically be found in the 'options' or 'preferences' menu of your browser. In order to understand these settings, the following links may be helpful; otherwise you should use the 'Help' option in your browser for more details.
Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
Cookie settings in Firefox
Turn off anonymous Google Analytics cookies
You can install a Google Analytics browser 'plug in' to prevent the website sending information about your visit to Google Analytics. More information about this can be found below.
Turn off third party cookies
In order to prevent third party cookies from being dropped onto your browser, you can go to the relevant third party website and generate a one-time 'no thanks' cookie. This will stop any further cookies being served to your browser from this third party. The third party used by this website is DoubleClick and you can find out instructions on how to do this on the link below.
Other useful links
If you would like to find out more about cookies and their wider use, you may find the following links of interest:
The IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) has provided the following website to give information specifically about privacy issues around internet advertising:
For further legal information about privacy issues, you may find these links useful:
The Information Commissioner's Office
Find our complaints policy here.