A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.
We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about webpage traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.
Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.
We don’t have a cookie banner as we don’t have any cookies on our site that track or look to collect information such as IP addresses. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.
Most browsers also allow you to change your settings to let you refuse to accept cookies. For example, in Internet Explorer you can do this by going to ‘Tools’, ‘Internet options’, ‘Privacy’ and then select ‘Block all cookies’ with the sliding selector. You should be aware though that this may make it difficult for you to use certain websites, including this one. Some cookies are needed to simply allow the page to load properly so if you block all cookies, it may cause problems in accessing websites or seeing all of the content.
Furthermore, ‘do not track’ (DNT) is a feature that some browsers offer as a default choice. If you enable it then websites receive a signal requesting that your browsing isn’t tracked. This may be for third party ads or social networks, or possibly analytics companies. If you would like to opt-out of Google Analytics, you can download an opt-out browser add-on for to do this: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.
You can also always delete any cookies stored on your computer.
The table below explains the cookies we use and why.
| Name | Description | Expiry |
|---|---|---|
| CookieControl | This cookie is to control the Civic Cookie Banner that is used on the website | 3 months |
| __tawkuuid | This cookie is usually set by a website utilizing Tawk.to, which is a Live chat service. This cookie remembers the end user so that past chat conversations can be identified to improve service. | 6 months |
| TawkConnectionTime | This cookie is usually set by a website utilizing Taw.to, which is a Live chat service. This cookie remembers the end user so that past chat conversations can be identified to improve service. | Session |
| XSRF-TOKEN | Used to prevent cross-site forgery (CSRF) attacks on our site. The token verifies that each authenticated user is making the requests. | Session |
| guidelines_session | Identifies a unique visitor between visits. | Session |
| __cfduid | Used to override any security restrictions based on the IP address the visitor is coming from. Used by our security layer. | 1 year |
| apbct_hyro_acc_collect, apbct_cookies_test, apbct_site_landing_ts, apbct_timestamp, apbct_visible_fields, apbct_visible_fields_count, apbct_page_hits | Our websites use the Anti-spam by Cleantalk system to help prevent spam form submissions. This system sets the following cookies to prevent incoming spam and improve the security of our websites. | Session |
Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.
Most web browsers allow some control of most cookies through the browser settings. If you decline cookies, this may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.aboutcookies.org or allaboutcookies.org.
To opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.