Cookie Policy

The short version

We set a small number of cookies that are necessary for this site to work. Nothing else runs until you tell us it can. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time, and rejecting everything non-essential does not reduce the functionality of the site in any way that matters.

What a cookie is, briefly

A cookie is a small file a website stores in your browser. This policy also covers similar technologies - local storage, pixels and tags - because from a privacy perspective they do the same job and the same rules apply.

The four categories we use

Every technology on this site falls into exactly one of these. Our consent banner controls them by category.

1. Strictly necessary

These make the site function and cannot be turned off. They are set without consent because the site cannot work without them, and they are not used to track you.

• Session cookie - keeps your session consistent as you move between pages, and holds your form answers if a submission needs correcting so you do not retype them.
• Security token - protects our forms against cross-site request forgery, which is what stops another site submitting a form as if it were you.
• Consent record - remembers the choice you made here. Slightly circular, but we have to store your preference somewhere to honour it.

2. Functional

These remember preferences that improve your experience but are not required. Examples include remembering a region or language preference so you are not asked again, and remembering that you dismissed a notice. If you decline these, the site works normally - it just forgets these choices between visits.

3. Analytics

These help us understand how the site is used: which pages people read, where they arrive from, where they leave, and which content answers their question. We use this to improve the site, not to build a profile of you.

Nothing in this category loads until you consent to it. If you decline, we lose some visibility and you lose nothing.

Analytics data is reviewed in aggregate. We are interested in whether a page helps visitors find the right service, not in identifying a named person who read it.

4. Advertising

These would allow us and advertising platforms to measure campaign effectiveness and show relevant advertising elsewhere. They are the most privacy-intrusive category, and they are entirely optional.

Nothing in this category loads until you consent to it.

If enabled later, advertising tags will be assigned to this category even when they are used only for conversion measurement. That keeps the consent choice simple: anything that can report to an advertising platform waits for advertising consent.

How to control cookies

When you first visit, our banner offers three routes: accept all, reject everything non-essential, or manage your preferences category by category. There is no dark pattern here - rejecting is one click, exactly like accepting.

To change your mind later, reopen the preferences control from the link in our page footer. Your new choice applies immediately.

You can also control cookies in your browser settings, including clearing existing cookies and blocking future ones. Browser controls are blunter than ours and may affect other sites, and clearing cookies will also clear your stored preference here, so we will ask again.

Which specific tools we use

The analytics and advertising tools active on this site are configured by us and can change. Rather than publish a list here that risks going out of date and misleading you, the current set is disclosed in the preferences control itself, grouped by category, so what you see when you choose is always what is actually configured.

At the time of publication no analytics or advertising technologies are enabled on this site. If that changes, they will still require your consent before loading.

Do we record your consent?

Yes - which categories you accepted, the version of this policy that applied, and when. We keep that so we can demonstrate that non-essential technologies only ran with permission. It is not used to identify or profile you.

Related information

How we handle personal data more generally is in our privacy policy. Questions about this policy can go to the privacy address on our contact page.