Cookies

Cookies
When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

  • enabling a service to recognise your device so you don't have to give the same information several times during one task
  • recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested
  • measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there's enough capacity to ensure they are fast

Cookies for improving 
Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage, e.g. website statistics. This to ensure that the service is available when you want it and fast.

Name: _utma
Typical content: randomly generated number
Expires: 2 years

Name: _utmb
Typical content: randomly generated number
Expires: 30 minutes

Name: _utmc
Typical content: randomly generated number
Expires: when user exits browser

Name: _utmz
Typical content: randomly generated number + info on how the site was reached (e.g. directly or via a link, organic search or paid search)
Expires: 6 months

How to disable cookies
You can stop cookies being downloaded on to your computer by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.

There is more information about cookies, including how to delete them on the website aboutcookies.org. You may also opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics.

For further details on the cookies set by Google Analytics, please refer to the Google Code website