Cookies Policy

We use cookies across our websites to improve performance and enhance your user experience. 

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files which a website may put on your computer or mobile device when you first visit a site or page. The cookie will help the website, or another website, to recognise your device the next time you visit. Web beacons or other similar files can also do the same thing. We use the term “cookies” in this policy to refer to all files that collect information in this way. There are many functions cookies serve. For example, they can help us to remember your username, any promotion code(s), preferences and analyse how well our website is performing, or even allow us to recommend content we believe will be most relevant to you.

Certain cookies contain personal information – for example, if you click to “remember me” when logging in, a cookie will store your username. Most cookies won’t collect information that identifies you and will instead collect more general information such as how users arrive at and use our websites, or a user’s general location.

More detail on how businesses use cookies is available at www.allaboutcookies.org.

Please note that the third party websites referred to in this policy are provided for information purposes only. They are not affiliated to our website and we are not responsible for their content.

What different types of cookies do we use?

Generally, our cookies perform up to three different functions:

  1. Essential cookies

Some cookies are essential for the operation of our website. If a user opted to disable these cookies, they would not be able to use the website as intended.

  1. Performance Cookies

We utilise other cookies to analyse how our visitors use our websites and to monitor website performance. This allows us to provide a high-quality experience by customising our offering and quickly identifying and fixing any issues that arise. For example, we might use performance cookies to keep track of which pages are most popular, which method of linking between pages is most effective, and to determine why some pages are receiving error messages. We might also use these cookies to highlight articles or site services that we think will be of interest to you based on your usage of the website.

  1. Functionality Cookies

We use functionality cookies to allow us to remember your preferences. For example, some cookies save you the trouble of typing in your username every time you access a website if you allow them to and recall your customisation preferences.

We also use functionality cookies which can be used to provide you with enhanced services such as allowing you to watch a video online or comment on a blog, for example.

To view a full list of the cookies used on our website, please see the bottom of this cookie policy.

Does anyone else use cookies on our website?

We use or allow third parties to serve cookies that fall into the three categories above. For example, like many companies, we use Google Analytics to help us monitor our website traffic. We may also use third party cookies to help us with market research, revenue tracking, improving site functionality and monitoring compliance with our terms and conditions and copyright policy.

Can a website user block cookies?

The first time you accessed our website you should have seen an overlay which explained that by continuing to access our site, you are consenting to our use of cookies. 

However, if you do wish to disable our cookies then please follow the instructions below.

Please remember that if you do choose to disable cookies, you may find that certain sections of our website do not work properly.

If you are concerned about behaviourally targeted advertising cookies (which serve you advertisements based on your use of our website and other websites), to opt out of these third party cookies users based in the European Union can visit www.youronlinechoices.eu and users based in the US can visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/

How to enable and disable cookies using your browser:

Google Chrome

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/61416?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, 7.0, 8.0

http://windows.Microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-vista/Block-or-allow-cookies

Microsoft Edge 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4027947/microsoft-edge-delete-cookies

Mozilla Firefox

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/clear-cookies-and-site-data-firefox

Opera

https://blogs.opera.com/news/2015/08/how-to-manage-cookies-in-opera/

Safari on OSX

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac

All other browsers

Please look for a “help” function in the browser or contact the browser provider.

Do we track whether users open our emails?

Our emails may contain a single, campaign-unique “web beacon pixel” to tell us whether our emails are opened and verify any clicks through to links within the email. We may use this information for purposes including determining which of our emails are more interesting to users and to query whether users who do not open our emails wish to continue receiving them. The pixel will be deleted when you delete the email. If you do not wish the pixel to be downloaded to your device, you should select to receive emails from us in plain text rather than HTML.

Which cookies do we use?

Cookie Name Cookie Category Description Duration
wordpress_ 2 WordPress cookie for a logged in user. session
wordpress_logged_in_ 2 WordPress cookie for a logged in user session
wordpress_test_ 2 WordPress cookie for a logged in user session
wordpress_test_cookie 2 WordPress test cookie session
wp-settings- 1 WordPress also sets a few wp-settings-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customize your view of admin interface, and possibly also the main site interface. 1 year
wp-settings-time- 2 WordPress also sets a few wp-settings-{time}-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customize your view of admin interface, and possibly also the main site interface. 1 year
PHPSESSID 1 To identify your unique session on the website session
SESS 1 To ensure that you are recognised when you move from page to page within the site and that any information you have entered is remembered. session