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cookie information

How This Website Uses 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 is enough capacity to ensure they are fast.

Our use of cookies

Cookies for managing your current visit (essential), this one is called a “session” cookie

Name Typical Content Expires
PHPSESSID randomly generated text when user exits browser

Cookies for improving services (not essential)

Name Typical Content Expires
_utma randomly generated number 2 years
_utmb randomly generated number 30 minutes
_utmc randomly generated number when user exits browser
_utmz randomly generated number plus information about how the site was reached(eg, directly or via link, organic search or paid search 6 months
_atuvc randomly generated number 30 minutes

Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage. This is to ensure that the service is available when you want it and fast to use.