2019 Cookie Policy
What are cookies?
As is common practice with almost all professional websites this site uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve your experience. This page describes what information they gather, how we use it and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored however this may downgrade or ‘break’ certain elements of the sites functionality.
How we use cookies
We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. Unfortunately, in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this site. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in case they are used to provide a service that you use.
About cookies
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.
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. 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.
Cookies that we use
We use cookies for the following purposes:
- Authentication – We use cookies to identify you when you visit our website and as you navigate our website
- Status – we use cookies to help us to determine if you are logged into our website;
- Personalisation – we use cookies to store information about your preferences and to personalise the website for you;
- Security – We use cookies as an element of the security measures used to protect our website and services generally;
- Analysis – we use cookies to help us to analyse the use and performance of our website and services;
- Cookie consent – we use cookies to store your preferences in relation to the use of cookies more generally.
- Third-Party Advertisements – we use cookies to show you adverts of a product or service viewed on our website when visiting third parties or independent websites that show cookie-based adverts.
Disabling cookies
You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser Help for how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. Disabling cookies will usually result in also disabling certain functionality and features of the site. Therefore it is recommended that you do not disable cookies.
Managing cookies
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:
- Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en
- Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences
- Internet Explorer: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies
- Safari: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac
Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites. If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.
Cookies used by our service providers
Our service providers use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit our website.
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. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content.
Google’s privacy policy is available at: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.
We also use social media buttons and/or plugins on this site that allow you to connect with your social network in various ways. For these to work, the social media sites (including Twitter and Facebook) will set cookies through our site which may be used to enhance your profile on their site or contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies
