Like many other web sites we use cookies on our site. Cookies can help a website to personalise your visit. A cookie is a text-only string of information that a website transfers to the cookie file of the browser on your computer's hard disk so that the website can, among other things, remember who you are. A cookie will typically contain the name of the domain from which the cookie has come, the 'lifetime' of the cookie, and a value, usually a randomly generated unique number.
EU 'cookie' directive
A new European Union directive requires us to gain the consent of our users to download cookies on to their machines.
There are various methods we could use to gain users consent. For example, we could use pop-ups; prompting users to tick a box to confirm they give permission for us to download cookies on their machine. Alternatively, we could use an online form that all users must complete before using the website.
We consider both of these solutions as obtrusive. We want our users to find information and services quickly. Therefore, we have taken the decision to promote how we use cookies on our website instead. This will enable users to make an informed decision whether they want to disable this feature.
Our cookies
When you use this website, you may be sent the following cookies, which will be used for the following purposes:
Session cookies - For our online forms we have to use session cookies to pass information such as progress from one page of the form to the next.
Statistics cookies - The statistics cookies provide us with general and not individually specific information about the number of people that visit the site, the number who return; where they came from and so on. This is essential to understand which parts of the website are most popular, and to monitor user journeys so our processes can be improved accordingly.
For more information on the cookie set by Google Analytics (our statistics cookie) please go see Google's privacy policy. To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites please go to Google's opt out page.
Other cookies
As we link to third party sites, cookies will appear from these sites if the links are followed. Please go to the websites directly to find out how they manage cookies.
How to control, delete, and disable 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 website, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings.
For more information on how to control, delete and disable cookies, you may wish to visit
About Cookies which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of web browsers.
Please be aware that restricting cookies may cause our website to work incorrectly.
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 of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.