Cookies are small text files that websites store on your computer to give you a better experience whilst online. Just like most other websites, our website uses cookies.
Understanding what cookies are
You can only make an informed decision about whether you want to accept cookies or not if you understand what they are.
A cookie is a small text file placed on your computer, smartphone or other device when you visit a website. The cookie allows the website owner to store a small piece of information on your computer and then refer back to it, perhaps several times during your visit – or the next time you visit.
An example of using cookies would be in conjunction with site statistics. When you visit our website, our system places a cookie in order to enable us to count the different people who visit, which pages they use and how they move about the site.
Cookies are stored on your computer or smartphone – this means you have control and can delete them if you wish to. We do not keep a copy of cookies we place on your computer, and we cannot identify you personally from them.
It is worth remembering that only the web service which sets a particular cookie can then read it at a later date. So the cookies set as a result of you filling in that form, could not be read by, say, the BBC News website or Google.
How might this site use cookies?
We might also use cookies to monitor the use of different web pages and track how visitors navigate around our sites. This helps us evaluate our work, for example – do people spend more time on a page written in a particular style? Are people finding it hard to navigate to certain information? How can we make it easier for people to find the information they seek most often? All the answers to questions like these allow us make your experience better in the future.
We might provide you with the option to share content through social networking sites such as Facebook or Instagram, or to connect with us there, without leaving our website. In order to facilitate this, the social networks themselves use cookies to identify you – so that they know who wants to share or who wants to connect with us. We do not control the use of these cookies, so below are links to the cookie policies of some of the social networks we integrate with:
Facebook; Instagram; Twitter; WordPress.com
In order to provide you with content in appropriate ways, we sometimes have to use third-party services to do so. An example of this might be a video, or a document that you can download like our annual reports or financial accounts. Many of the services we use for this will also use cookies, which again we do not control.
If you are a contributor to our websites, and have logged-in to the administration part of the site, you will have received cookies from us. These perform two main functions: They prevent you having to log-in each time you visit a different page; and, if you allow it, prevent you having to re-enter your username and password each time you visit the site.
You need to decide whether you want to accept them or not. Because cookies are so important to the effective running of this site, several will have already been set. By continuing to browse, you are accepting that we can use any of the above mentioned cookies for the purposes detailed.
If you would prefer not to receive cookies, there are instruction on disabling cookies for most web browsers available here.
Data protection
We hold all of your data in accordance with our own data protection policy, and the Data Protection Act. You can find out more in the details of our Privacy Policy.