How we use cookies
Cookies are small files of letters and numbers downloaded on to a device when you access certain websites. The law which applies to how cookies are used for storing information on your equipment (such as your computer or mobile device) changed on 26 May 2011. We will provide you with clear information about how our sites use cookies, and how to disable them if you wish.
Our site will set a cookie for use by Google Analytics, a web analytics tool that helps website owners understand how visitors engage with their website. Google Analytics customers can view a variety of reports about how visitors interact with their website so that they can improve it.
Like many services, Google Analytics uses first-party cookies to track visitor interactions, where they are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We then use the information to compile reports and to help us improve our site.
Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive. These cookies are used to store information, such as the time that the current visit occurred, whether the visitor has been to the site before and what site referred the visitor to the web page.
Google Analytics collects information anonymously. It reports website trends without identifying individual visitors. You can opt out of Google Analytics without affecting how you visit our site – for more information on opting out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites you use, visit this Google page.
We also set a cookie known as a csrf or Cross-Site Request Forgery token. This is part of the many security measures we take to prevent hackers on an unrelated website sending requests to the site as you, the user, and helps to safeguard the newsletter sign-up facility. If you wish to disable this cookie, we recommend you do this directly within your browser. If this cookie is disabled, you will not be able to subscribe to our newsletter and will receive a message asking you to allow cookies to do so.
Third party content
Web pages on the site occasionally include embedded YouTube videos. Where this occurs, YouTube can drop standard, and flash-based, cookies to collect analytical information. To ensure these cookies are not downloaded, we recommend that you disable cookies directly within your browser. Blocking YouTube cookies may prevent YouTube videos playing properly or displaying as expected.