Cookie Policy
Our website and online services, along with most other websites, use cookies and similar technologies. For the purpose of this policy, ‘cookies’ and ‘similar technologies’ will be referred to collectively as ‘cookies’.What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files containing pieces of information that websites can store on your computer’s hard disk. Cookies enable users to navigate around the website and (where appropriate) allow us to continually improve the website and make it more efficient to use on future visits.
We use two types of cookies on this website:
Session cookies are temporary cookies that remain on your machine only for as long as you are on the website and are deleted after each visit
Persistent cookies which remain on your machine until expiry or deletion (many of these have automatic deletion dates). Persistent cookies may store your personal preferences, for example your language preferences on multi-lingual sites. They may also be used to record activity you may have previously completed, such as completing an online survey, so that you are not asked to complete the survey every time you use the site.
How we use cookies on our website
We use some ‘strictly necessary’ cookies within our online services. These are limited to those deemed essential to provide you with the services you have requested, for example ‘Apply online’, and therefore must be allowed to continue with that service.
In addition we use cookies to:
• Collect anonymous information that will help us understand visitors’ browsing habits on our website;
• Compile statistical reports on website activity, e.g. number of visitors and the pages they visit;
• Temporarily store any information which you may enter in tools, such as calculators or demonstrations on our website;
• In some cases, remember information about you when you visit our site. We may need to do this to provide some of our services.
We sometimes use third parties to assist us in the analysis of visits to and performance of our website, but no personal information is collected and no personal information is sent to the third parties for this purpose.
We do not use cookies to track your use of the internet after you leave our site, nor do we use them to store any personal information in them that others could read and understand.
Changing your cookie settings
You can block any cookies from any website through your browser settings. For more specific information about how to do this and how to manage cookies to suit your preferences, including deleting those that have already been added to your computer, please visit www.aboutcookies.org.
Please note that some parts of our website, in particular the ‘Apply online’ functionality, will not function properly if you reject cookies.
If you share the use of a computer, accepting or rejecting the use of cookies will affect all users of that computer.
Consent to cookies
When you visit our website after 26/05/2012 you will notice a banner informing you that we use cookies on our website and a link to this policy. If you continue to use this site without disabling cookies we will take that as your consent for us to place cookies on your computer. Please remember if you do disable cookies then some parts of our website may not work properly and you will not be able to use our ‘Apply online’ services.
