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Cookies
Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are automatically stored on your computer as you browse the web. Typically, they contain 2 pieces of information:
- Site name
- Unique user ID
They are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site. The tables explain the cookies we use and why.
First party cookies
| Cookie name | Essential or non-essential | Type of cookie | Session or persistent | Expiry time | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| __utma | Non-essential | Tracking / Google Analytics | Persistent | 2 years from set / update | Load Balancer: This cookie is used by server’s load balancer to identify the server that is active for your request on our cluster. It’s purpose is to improve the performance of the website. This is an essential cookie to the operation of the site that is always set by the load balancer and does not store any personal information. |
| __utmt | Non-essential | Tracking / Google Analytics | Persistent | 10 minutes | Used to throttle request rate. |
| __utmb | Non-essential | Tracking / Google Analytics | Persistent | 30 mins from set / update | Used to determine new sessions / visits. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and no existing __utmb cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. |
| __utmc | Non-essential | Tracking / Google Analytics | Session | End of browser session | Set for interoperability with urchin.js. Historically, this cookie operated in conjunction with the __utmb cookie to determine whether the user was in a new session / visit. |
| __utmz | Non-essential | Tracking / Google Analytics | Persistent | 6 months from set / update | Stores the traffic source or campaign that explains how the user reached your site. The cookie is created when the javascript library executes and is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. |
| __utmv | Non-essential | Tracking / Google Analytics | Persistent | 2 years from set / update | Used to store visitor-level custom variable data. This cookie is created when a developer uses the _setCustomVar method with a visitor level custom variable. This cookie was also used for the deprecated _setVar method. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. |
| nmstat | Non-essential | Tracking / SiteImprove | Persistent | 1,000 days | This cookie is used to help record visitors' use of the website. It is used to collect statistics about site usage such as when the visitor last visited the site. This information is then used to improve the user experience on the website. This Siteimprove Analytics cookie contains a randomly generated ID used to recognize the browser when a visitor reads a page. The cookie contains no personal information and is used only for web analytics. |
Third party cookies
| Cookie name | Essential or non-essential | Type of cookie | Session or persistent | Expiry time | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWSELB | Essential | Functional / Amazon Web Services | Session | On browser close | This cookie is used by Amazon Web Services Elastic Load Balancing functionality for routing client request on the server. |
| AWSELBCORS | Non-essential | Functional / Amazon Web Services | Session | On browser close | This cookie is used by Amazon Web Services Elastic Load Balancing. |
| siteimproveses | Non-essential | Tracking / SiteImprove | Session | On browser close | This cookie is used purely to track the sequence of pages a visitor looks at during a visit to the site. This information can be used to create User Journeys and enable visitors to find relevant information more quickly. |
Report your cookie concerns
You can report your cookie concerns on the Information Commissioner’s website.