A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that websites download to your computer to distinguish you from other users of the website and provide you with a better user experience. Our site does this when you browse our website and also allows us to improve our site by gathering feedback.

Examples of use include:

1) Shopping cart - so your basket can persist throughout your site visit a cookie will store a unique identifier in a cookie which ties your specific visit to your basket
2) Security - so you can stay "logged in" to certain areas on a website a cookie will store a unique identifier to say that the current visitor is the same person and is allowed to access the secured area
3) Statistical analysis - by knowing which pages you are visiting can help us to understand better which pages are of interest or should be changed
4) Storing preferences – such as previously selected features or areas of interest so that we can display them to you next time you visit

You can easily turn off cookies in your browser and more information about this is available at www.aboutcookies.org. This shouldn’t affect your browsing of most pages however may affect your user experience as detailed above.

Why the concern about cookies?

Much of the bad press surrounding cookies stems from "persistent cookies" which can aid advertisers to display customised adverts based on your browsing history and which sites you frequently visit.

Cookies are not programmes and cannot collect information from your computer. You can easily view cookies stored on your computer and they don’t do any damage to your PC.

Cookies are used by millions of websites across the globe and we hope this has reassured you that there is nothing wrong with them. If you have any questions though please contact us or visit www.aboutcookies.org.

Our site in particular uses:

Statistical analysis cookies - there are 4 cookies set by Google (_utma, _utmb, _utmc, _utmz) which are used to anonymously track how our website is being used and which pages are most popular. We have no way of knowing who a visitor is (we cannot see that Joe Bloggs from 12 Acacia Avenue visited our page about Widgets), we only know that an anonymous visitor visited a particular page.
This document is intended for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. You may wish to consider a more detailed legal review based on your specific circumstances. We are not responsible for the content of external sites mentioned above.