We have written this policy to help you to understand what cookies are, which cookies we use, why we use them and what you can do if you would prefer not to have them.
The different types of Cookie.
There are two different types of cookie used by almost all websites.
The first type is a ‘session’ cookie which is downloaded to your device when you arrive on a website and is deleted soon after you leave the site – these are typically used for things like remembering what you’ve put in a shopping cart when you move between pages. Most websites will not work without these cookies.
The second type of cookie is a persistent cookie, which is downloaded to your device when you arrive on a website, but is stored on your device when you leave the website. This type of cookie can remember something you’ve selected the previous time you were on a site, such as a language preference or font size.
The Cookies we use and why we use them.
Google Analytics
We use a combination of one session cookie and two persistent cookies to help us to understand how people use our website. The cookies are from Google Analytics and allow us to find out where visitors have come from (i.e. followed a link from Twitter); whether they’ve been on the site before (using a random collection of letters and numbers to identify your browser); which pages they visit; how long they have spent on our site and how many visitors we have in total. We don’t collect any personally identifiable data – only your IP address is recorded, but the final digits are removed and we are not able to see it.
We only use the Google Analytics information to help to improve our website content and usability.
Website security
We use a session cookie to make sure that your use of our website is not hijacked by someone else. When you first arrive on our website, a unique cookie is stored on your device – each time you do something on the website, that cookie will be ‘authenticated’ (checked) to make sure it’s still valid. This cookie helps to prevent certain website attacks, makes your data more secure, contains no personal information and is deleted soon after you leave the website.
Controlling cookies.
None of the cookies we use are able to identify you personally and are not used to provide advertising on, or from, other websites - we use them very simply to make our website more secure, improve the visitor experience and to allow certain aspects of the site to function correctly.
Without cookies, you will probably not be able to use any of our online application forms, and other aspects of the site may not function in the way in which we intended.
After reading this policy, if you would prefer not to receive cookies from this (or other websites) there are a number of steps that you can take, depending on the browser you use:
Internet explorer - https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies
Google Chrome - https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647
Safari - https://support.apple.com/kb/ph21411
Firefox - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/firefox/protect-your-privacy/cookies
