Cookies

We use cookies to monitor web usage. Cookies are written to the hard drive of a web user, they contain no personal information about the website user and only keep a record of the sites visited and actions on the web site.  Some cookies expire after your browser is closed whilst others stay on your hard drive. They are of standard use across many websites. We use them on an aggregated information basis and to assess your areas of interest – they are used to identify the number of unique visitors to a site, to improve further web visits (store preferences, user name and your email address so you don’t need to reinput every time you visit) and to improve the user experience for you by, amongst other things, providing content based on your preferences. We use the following categories of cookies on our websites: 

(1) Strictly necessary cookies. These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features. Without these cookies, services you have asked for such as remembering your login details cannot be provided. These cookies cannot be disabled 

(2) Performance cookies. These cookies collect anonymous information on how you use a website. The data stored by these cookies never shows personal details from which your individual identity can be established. Without these cookies we cannot learn how the website is working to make improvements which improves your browsing experience 

(3) Functionality cookies. These cookies remember choices you make and then can be used to provide you with an experience more appropriate to your selections and to make the visits more tailored and pleasant. The information these cookies collect may be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites (4) Targeting or advertising cookies. These cookies collect information about your browsing habits in order to make advertising more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advert as well as help measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. They remember the websites you visit and share that information with advertisers. We are in the process of updating our systems so that when you visit a website we ask for your consent to show you personalised advertisements based on your browsing habits.

Most browsers offer you ways to control or block cookies should you wish to. These browser controls will usually be found in the “options” or “preferences” menu in your toolbar. The “help” portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to stop or manage cookies. Note that should all cookies be rejected we are unable to match site content appropriate to the preferences given to us by previous visits and you will not be able to fully utilise all of the web site features.  For further information on cookies visit aboutcookies.org or the Information Commissioner's webpage on cookies ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies/.