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
Our use of cookies
Cookies for managing your current visit
Name Typical content Expires
site_session randomly generated text when user exits browser
Cookies for improving service
Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage. This to ensure that the service is available when you want it and fast.
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 6 months
+ info on how the site was reached (e.g. directly or via a link, organic search or paid search) 6 months
For further details on the cookies set by Google Analytics, please refer to the Google Code website