Cookies Policy
Cookies in use on this site
Cookies and how they benefit you
Almost all websites – including this one – store small files called cookies on your computer or mobile phone when you browse. Cookies store information to help make sure you get the best out of a website.
We need your permission to use cookies. You don’t have to give us permission, but if you do it will make sure you get the best out of the site. You can also change your decision any time you choose.
Some sites use cookies to identify you personally or share your information with advertisers. We don’t do that – your privacy is very important to us. Our cookies are used to make sure the site works the way you expect – that it loads quickly, remembers your settings, and is easy to share with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.
To be absolutely clear, we don’t use cookies to:
- Collect any personally identifiable information (without your express permission)
- Pass data to advertising networks
- Pass personally identifiable data to third parties
- Pay sales commissions
Giving us permission to use cookies – or not
Under the law about cookies we need your permission to store them on your computer or device. Like many organisations we need to take time to make sure the website complies with the law, and we’re working very hard to make sure we can record permission from our visitors.
Until we can do that, if your internet browser’s settings accept cookies on your computer or mobile device, we assume you’re happy for us to use them. On this page we’ll tell you how to delete or refuse cookies, in case you’re not happy for us to store them – but please keep in mind that the site might not work the way you would expect if we can’t use them.
If you really don’t want us to use cookies – and you don’t mind the way that can change your experience of our website – you’re absolutely free to turn them off or delete them. If you want to do that, this very useful guide will help you.
More about our cookies
Our own cookies
The cookies we use help make sure:
- The site remembers your search settings
- You can add comments to our site through Facebook
- The site remembers your preferences about colours, text size and layout.
There is no way to prevent these cookies being stored on your computer other than by not using the website. You can delete the cookies using your browser after you leave the site.
Anonymous visitor statistics cookies
We want to know that our website helps users and to do that we need to make sure it looks, feels and reads well for our visitors. To help us do that we use Google Analytics to learn lots about our visitors – including which countries they’re in, what sort of computers or devices they’re using, how long they read pages for, and which pages they see. It’s not about identifying individual users – it’s all about getting a clear idea of how we need to improve the site so it works well for everyone.
Google Analytics also helps us learn how people find out about the site – for example, which search engines they use, and which words they use to search.
Please read Google Analytics’ privacy policy to find out how they use your data.
Turning cookies off
If you really don’t want us to use cookies – and you don’t mind the way that can change your experience of our website – you’re absolutely free to turn them off or delete them. If you want to do that, this very useful guide will help you.
If you’re worried about spyware – creepy programmes that track you and target adverts at you – we want to be absolutely clear that we don’t use it. Most anti-spyware programmes simply delete cookies that they think come from spyware – and, as we have said, you can always do that with cookies from this website. You can learn more about managing cookies with anti-spyware programmes.