What is in a cookie?

A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device by a website’s server and only that server will be able to retrieve or read the contents of that cookie.  Each cookie is unique to your web browser.  It will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier and the site name and some digits and numbers.  It allows a website to remember things like your preferences or what’s in your shopping basket.

How we use cookies

First party cookies 

These Cookies are set by our website, and can only be read by our site.  These types of Cookies enable us to identify your device, if or when you have logged in and track your progress through the site.  They also help us to improve the performance of our website to provide you with a better user experience.

We don’t sell the information collected by cookies, nor do we disclose the information to third parties, except where required by law (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies).

Third party cookies

Third party cookies are set by a different organisation. Our website uses social media buttons such as Facebook and Twitter, contains content embedded from YouTube and utilises Adobe Flash Player to deliver some content. When you interact with this content, the associated websites, i.e Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Adobe will set their own cookies to perform their services.

How  to manage cookies

If you don’t want to receive cookies, you can modify your browser so that it notifies you when cookies are sent to it or you can refuse cookies altogether.  You can also delete cookies that have already been set.

If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies which are set on your device then you can do this through your browser settings; the Help function within your browser should tell you how. Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of desktop browsers.