The law regarding cookies

The original EU legislation that became known as the “E-Privacy Directive” was published in 2003. It was concerned quite widely with the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector. In 2009 the Directive was amended by Directive 2009/136/EC that included a requirement to seek consent for cookies. The EU Directive became law in the UK on 26 May 2011. The ICO (Information Commissioners Office) is responsible for enforcing it in the UK and decided that enforcement would commence from 26 May 2012. As a result of the changes to the law, website owners must now:

Tell site visitors that the cookies are there;

Explain to site visitors what the cookies are doing; and

Obtain the consent of site visitors to store a cookie on their computer or device.

The ICO advises that website owners take steps to ensure that their users are properly informed about the cookies used by their website. We acknowledge this advice and have therefore put together this Cookie Policy. In doing so we have followed guidelines issued by authorities on the subject of best practice, including the International Chamber of Commerce UK Cookie Guide, which can be located here.

What are cookies?

A cookie is a piece of information that a website stores on the website browser on your computer. The browser sends the information back to the website to enable the website to recognise the user.

Cookies include information such as the lifetime and expiry date of the cookie, the domain the cookie has come from and an identifier – for example, a random unique number.

Managing cookies using your browser

Internet browsers will usually provide an option to disallow the setting of all or some cookies.

You can find more about using your browser’s cookie settings either via the help menu for your browser or on the browser’s own website.

Cookies can also be deleted by using your internet browser, but you must disallow them otherwise they will be reapplied the next time you visit a website.

If you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of our website.

Further information about our use of cookies

Cookies usually fit into one or more of the following four categories.

Category 1: Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features. These cookies do not gather any information about you that could be used for marketing or remembering where you’ve been on the internet. We are not required to get your consent to the use of Strictly Necessary Cookies. They last for one “session” and expire when you leave our website or close the browser. Cookies that fall into this category are:

i. Shopping cart cookies;

ii. Access to protected areas of a website;

iii. Remembering previously entered text so it’s not lost if the page refreshes.

Category 2: Performance Cookies

Performance Cookies store anonymous information only and therefore cannot be used to identify you. We are required to get your consent to the use of Performance Cookies. By using our website, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.Performance Cookies can be deleted from your browser history at any point before their expiry time. Cookies that fall into this category are:

i. Analytics;

ii. Advertising;

iii. Pay Per Click.

Category 3: Functionality Cookies

These cookies remember your preferences to personalise your experience on our website. We are required to get your consent to the use of Functionality Cookies. By using our website, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device. Functionality Cookies can be deleted from your browser history at any point before their expiry time. Cookies that fall into this category are:

i. Detecting if you have already seen a pop-up to ensure it doesn’t get shown to you again;

ii. Submitting comments;

iii. Remembering colours, font sizes and page backgrounds.

Category 4: Targeted Advertising Cookies

Targeted Advertising Cookies are used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. The information they store is not anonymous. We are required to get your consent to Target Advertising Cookies. We will ask for consent from you to store these cookies on your device using a pop-up, overlay, splash page or header/footer bar. Cookies that fall into this category are:

i. Collecting information about browser habits to target advertising;

ii. Collecting information about browser habits to target website content.

We will inform you about cookies in these ways:

We have placed our Cookie Policy page as a link on every other page of our website to enable you to see and choose which cookies you allow from us. Please note that disallowing or deleting these cookies may affect the functionality of our website. If a cookie is a Targeted Advertising Cookie we will ask for your consent. We will endeavour to be as consistent as possible in the method we use to ask for your consent to make the user experience as easy to understand for you as possible. We will obtain your consent via a pop-up, overlay or splash page.