Our website uses cookies

We will ask you to consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy when you first visit our website. By using our website and agreeing to this policy, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy.

A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

Cookies can be used by web servers to identity and track users as they navigate different pages on a website and identify users returning to a website.

Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies.

A persistent cookie consists of a text file sent by a web server to a web browser, which will be stored by the browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date (unless deleted by the user before the expiry date).

A session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

About our cookies

This website uses cookies to better the users experience while visiting the website. Where applicable this website uses a cookie control system allowing the user on their first visit to the website to allow or disallow the use of cookies on their computer / device. This complies with recent legislation requirements for websites to obtain explicit consent from users before leaving behind or reading files such as cookies on a user’s computer / device.

Cookies are small files saved to the user’s computers hard drive that track, save and store information about the user’s interactions and usage of the website. This allows the website, through its server to provide the users with a tailored experience within this website.

Users are advised that if they wish to deny the use and saving of cookies from this website on to their computers hard drive they should take necessary steps within their web browsers security settings to block all cookies from this website and its external serving vendors.

This website uses tracking software to monitor its visitors to better understand how they use it. This software is provided by Google Analytics which uses cookies to track visitor usage. The software will save a cookie to your computers hard drive in order to track and monitor your engagement and usage of the website, but will not store, save or collect personal information. You can read Google’s privacy policy here for further information http://www.google.com/privacy.html.

Other cookies may be stored to your computers hard drive by external vendors when this website uses referral programs, sponsored links or adverts. Such cookies are used for conversion and referral tracking and typically expire after 30 days, though some may take longer. No personal information is stored, saved or collected.

The purpose of each cookie is explained below:

Cookie Description Duration
cookie_notice_accepted We will use this persistent cookie to check if you have accepted cookies so that the cookie policy message can be negated. This cookie lasts until the end of the session or until such time as you delete the cookie in your browser. 30 days
TEST_COOKIE We will use this persistent cookie to check if you have accepted cookies so that the cookie policy message can be negated. This cookie lasts until the end of the session or until such time as you delete the cookie in your browser. Destroyed when the browser is closed (End of user session)
wordpress_test_cookie We will use this persistent cookie to check if you have accepted cookies so that the cookie policy message can be negated. This cookie lasts until the end of the session or until such time as you delete the cookie in your browser. PHP session (PHPSESSID) is destroyed when the browser is closed (End of user session)
wordpress_[serialised number] We will use this session cookie to store information about your current session, which is stored on the server and is used to identify other information, like user_id/name(when signed in). End of session
wordpress_logged_in_[unique_serialised_user_id] We will use this session cookie to store information about your current session, which is stored on the server and is used to identify other information, like user_id/name (when signed in). End of session

Cookies set by Third Party sites

Google Analytics Cookies

We use Google Analytics to understand how visitors interact with our website, such as how they found us, how long is spent viewing pages, and what time of day they visited us on. This allows us to improve the visitors’ experience on our websites and to track our marketing efforts.

The purpose of each cookie is explained below:

Cookie Description Duration
_ga This Google Analytics cookie is used to determine you as a unique visitor to our website and it is updated with each page view. It contains a unique ID that Google Analytics uses to help data validity. 2 years or when user clears cookies
_gid This Google Analytics cookie is used to determine you as a unique visitor to our website and it is updated with each page view. It contains a unique ID that Google Analytics uses to help data validity. 24 hours
_gat Used to throttle request rate. If Google Analytics is deployed via Google Tag Manager, this cookie will be named _dc_gtm_<property-id>. 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. 30 seconds to 1 year
_gac_<property-id> Contains campaign related information for the user. If you have linked your Google Analytics and AdWords accounts, AdWords website conversion tags will read this cookie unless you opt-out. 90 days

All these are Category 2 cookies.

Note: the expiration length of each cookie is from the time it was last updated on

For more information on the use of Google cookies visit www.google.com/policies/.

Temporary logged-in and database created cookies

These cookies are created when you sign up and are passed to our database to identify you next time you visit. Likewise, this information is stored on our secure database so and recreated the next time you visit and log on to the application(s) on our website.

They are used to associate your information with the correct records on our database. They also identify what level of access you have, ie normal user or administration.

User ID A unique number that is used to identify your records stored in our database 20 minutes from in-activity.

Cookies and personal information

Cookies do not contain any information that personally identifies you, but personal information that we store about you may be linked, by us, to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

Blocking cookies

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies. For example:

(a) In Internet Explorer (version 9) you can block cookies using the cookie handling override settings available by clicking “Tools”, “Internet Options”, “Privacy” and then “Advanced”;

(b) In Firefox (version 16) you can block all cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Options”, “Privacy”, selecting “Use custom settings for history” from the drop-down menu, and unchecking “Accept cookies from sites” and

(c) In Chrome (version 23), you can block all cookies by accessing the “Customise and control” menu, and clicking “Settings”, “Show advanced settings” and “Content settings”, and then selecting “Block sites from setting any data” under the “Cookies” heading.

Blocking all cookies will, however, have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites. If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on this website.

Deleting cookies

You can also delete cookies already stored on your computer. For example:

(a) In Internet Explorer (version 9), you must manually delete cookie files (you can find instructions for doing so at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/278835);

(b) In Firefox (version 16), you can delete cookies by clicking “Tools”, “Options”, “Privacy” and then “Show Cookies”, and then clicking “Remove All Cookies”; and

(c) In Chrome (version 23), you can delete all cookies by accessing the “Customise and control” menu, and clicking “Settings”, “Show advanced settings” and “Clear browsing data”, and then selecting “Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data” before clicking “Clear browsing data”.

Again, doing this may have a negative impact on the usability of many websites.