What is a cookie?

Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognise a user’s device. You can find more information about cookies at: www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.eu for a video about cookies visit www.google.com/policies/technologies/cookies.

Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improve the user experience. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.

The cookies used on this website have been categorised based on the categories found in the ICC UK Cookie guide. A list of all the cookies used on this website by category is set out below.

Category 1: strictly necessary cookies

These cookies enable services you have specifically asked for.

These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies services you have asked for, like shopping baskets or e-billing, cannot be provided.

Category 2: performance cookies

These cookies collect anonymous information on the pages visited.

These cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works.

Category 3: functionality cookies

These cookies remember choices you make to improve your experience.

These cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. For instance, a website may be able to provide you with local weather reports or traffic news by storing in a cookie the region in which you are currently located. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect may be anonymised and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.

Overview of Cookies used by this site

NAME	PURPOSE
The two cookies below are essential to allow e-commerce to function correctly.
SS_CartID	This keeps track of items added to the basket. Expires when the browser is closed.
ASP.NET_SessionID	This is the built in session ID used by .Net authentication to identify a user’s actions. Expires when the browser is closed.
The following cookies are for Google Analytics tracking. Please visit the Google Analytics privacy page to view Google’s privacy policy. Google has also produced a browser plug in to bypass the collection of analytics. Please visit this page to download it.
_ga	Used to distinguish users. Expires in 2 years.
_gid	Used to distinguish users. Expires in 24 hours.
_gat	Used to throttle request rate. Expire in 1 minute.
AMP_TOKEN	Contains a token that can be used to retrieve a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate opt-out, inflight request or an error retrieving a Client ID from AMP Client ID service. Expires between 30 seconds and 1 year.
_gac_<property-id>	Contains campaign related information for the user. Expires in 90 days.
__utma	Used to distinguish users and sessions. The cookie is created when the JavaScript library executes and no existing __utma cookies exists. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. Expires 2 years from set/update.
__utmt	Used to throttle request rate. Expires in 10 minutes.
__utmb	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. Expires 30 minutes from set/update.
__utmc	Not used in ga.js. 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. Expires when the browser is closed.
__utmz	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. Expires 6 months from set/update.
__utmv	Used to store visitor-level custom variable data. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. Expires 2 years from set/update.