First-party cookies
These cookies are set by the website you’re visiting and only that website can read them.
Third-party cookies
These cookies are set by someone other than the owner of the website you’re visiting. Some web pages may also contain content from other sites (for example YouTube), which may set their own cookies. Also, if you share a link to a page, the service you share it on (for example, Facebook) may set a cookie on your browser. We have no control over third-party cookies, but we do use these to understand how people use our site, and where we can make improvements.
Session cookies
These cookies only last as long as your online session and disappear from your computer or device when you close your browser (like Edge, Chrome or Safari).
Persistent cookies
These cookies stay on your computer or device after your browser has been closed and last for a time specified in the cookie. We use persistent cookies when we need to know who you are for more than one browsing session. For example, if you have accepted the cookie policy, so we do not need to keep asking you.
Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies let you use all the different parts of website. Without them, services that you’ve asked for cannot be provided.
Functional cookies
These help us personalise the site to you by remembering your preferences and settings. Some examples of how we use these cookies are remembering:
- if you visited the website before so that messages for new visitors are not displayed to you
- settings on the website like colour, font size and layout
Performance cookies
These help us understand how people are using the site, so we can make it better. And they let us try out different ideas. We sometimes get other companies to analyse how people are using the site. These companies might set their own performance cookies. Some examples of how we use these cookies are:
- collecting information on which web pages visitors go to most often so we can improve our online services
- making sure that the website is working properly and fixing any errors
- testing designs to help improve the look and feel of the website
Advertising cookies
Some websites use advertising networks to show you specially targeted adverts on other sites based on the sites you visit. These networks may also be able to track your browsing across different sites.
Other tracking technologies
Some sites use things like web beacons, clear GIFs, page tags and web bugs to understand how people are using them and to target advertising to them. They usually take the form of a small, transparent image that is embedded in a web page or email. They work with cookies and capture data like your IP address, when you viewed the page or email, what device you were using and where you were.