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Our Cookie Policy

1. About cookies

  1. A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
  2. Cookies may be either "persistent" cookies or "session" cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.
  3. Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

2. Cookies that we use

  1. We use cookies for the following purposes:
    1. authentication - we use cookies to identify you when you visit our website and as you navigate our website (cookies used for this purpose are: Apache);
    2. status - we use cookies to help us to determine if you are logged into our website, to store information about your preferences and to personalise our website for you (cookies used for this purpose begin: SSESS);
    3. analysis - we use cookies to help us to analyse the use and performance of our website and services (cookies used for this purpose are: Apache); and
    4. cookie consent - we use cookies to store your preferences in relation to the use of cookies more generally (cookies used for this purpose are: cookie-agreed).

3. Cookies used by our service providers

  1. Our service providers may use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit our website. You can block ALL cookies from our service providers by enabling the 'Block 3rd. Party Cookies' setting in your browser. Correct use of our site is unaffected by blocking our service provider cookies.
  2. We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website. Google Analytics gathers information about website use by means of cookies. The information gathered relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website. Google's privacy policy is available at: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/. The relevant cookies are: _gid, _ga, _gat.
  3. We use the Google reCAPTHCA service on our enquiry form to prevent automated submissions. Links to the privacy and terms of use for this are shown wherever it is used .
  4. We may use Pingdom to understand how the website is performing. In certain configurations this service may use cookies for specific, anonymised performance information. You can view the privacy policy of this service provider at https://www.pingdom.com/legal/cookie-policy.
  5. YouTube Cookies - We may embed videos from our YouTube channel using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. This mode may set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player. YouTube will not store personally-identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode. Youtube is covered in Google's Privacy & Terms.

4. Managing cookies

  1. Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:
    1. https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en (Chrome);
    2. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences (Firefox);
    3. http://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/cookies/ (Opera);
    4. https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies (Internet Explorer);
    5. https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411 (Safari); and
    6. https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy (Edge).
  2. Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.
  3. If you block cookies, you may not be able to use all the features on our website, but all public pages will display correctly.