"Essential" cookies let you move around the website and use essential features like secure areas and online billing. These cookies don't gather any information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you've been on the internet.
| Name | Description | Expiration |
|---|---|---|
| Apache | This cookie is set to provide a unique identification of the User and is passed back to the server with each subsequent request. The cookie allows us to distinguish between requests from multiple Users vs. multiple requests from the same User. The information is used by many features of the Content Management System as well as the systems responsible for protecting the website from abuse (e.g. a Denial of Service attack). | one "session" (i.e. until the browser is closed) |
| cookie_option_shown | This cookie controls whether the "privacy options" tab has been shown to the User. The tab appears only once per session on the first page that the User lands on. | one "session" (i.e. until the browser is closed) |
| privacy_preference | This cookie is set to record the fact that a User has opted to disable cookies. | 1 year from set/update. |
| privacy_cookie_status | This cookie is set to record the fact that a User has opted to enable cookies. | 1 year from set/update. |
| cms_device | This cookie detects what type of device is being used so that the user experience can be tailored accordingly. | 6 months from set/update. |
| Name | Description | Expiration |
|---|---|---|
| gwcc | Set by Google to track call conversions from visitors who arrive via a Google Ads campaign. When a visitor clicks through from a Google Ad, a forwarding number is displayed on the site and this cookie links any subsequent call to the originating ad, enabling Google Ads call conversion reporting. | 2 months |
We use Google Ads to display advertisements to you when you are visiting other websites, and to measure the performance of our advertising campaigns. The cookies listed below are set either on this domain or on Google's domains. For more information see Google's Privacy & Terms.
| Name | Description | Expiration |
|---|---|---|
| IDE | Set by Google on doubleclick.net to measure and track ad performance on non-Google websites, including conversion tracking and limiting how often the same ad is shown to the same user. | 13 months (EEA/UK) |
| DSID | Set by Google on doubleclick.net to identify a signed-in user across non-Google sites, so that their ad personalisation settings are applied consistently. | 2 weeks |
| __gads | Set on this domain by Google to enable ads to be displayed and to measure interactions with those ads, including preventing the same ad from being shown too many times. | 13 months |
| _gac_<property-id> | Set when Google Analytics and Google Ads are linked. Stores ad click information and is used to measure the performance of advertising campaigns. | 90 days |
We use Google Analytics 4 to understand how visitors use our website. It sets first-party cookies that assign each browser a randomly generated client ID, so that we can measure visits, sessions and the general performance of the site. This client ID does not tell us your name or contact details, but it is treated as personal data under UK data protection law and is only set with your consent. For more information see Google's Privacy & Terms.
| Name | Description | Expiration |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | Set by Google Analytics 4 to distinguish users by assigning a randomly generated client ID. Used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data. | 2 years (browsers commonly cap first-party cookies at around 13 months, so the effective lifespan is often shorter) |
| _ga_<container-id> | Set by Google Analytics 4 to persist session state for this property, so that page views within a single visit are grouped into one session. | 2 years (similarly capped in practice) |
| _gid | Set by Google Analytics 4 to distinguish users on a daily basis by assigning a randomly generated client ID. Used to measure engagement time and session data. Present on some configurations only. | 24 hours |
| _gat_gtag_<id>, _dc_gtm_<GTM-id> | Set by Google to throttle the rate at which requests are made. Present on some configurations only. | 1 minute |