What are cookies?
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.
Our use of cookies
We use the following cookies on our Website:
- Strictly necessary cookies
These are cookies that are essential for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website. - Analytical or performance cookies
These cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily. - Functionality cookies
These cookies are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region). - Targeting cookies
These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
Cookies we use
You can find more information about the individual cookies we use and the purposes for which we use them in the table below.
| Name | Purpose | Expiry |
| _ga | Used to distinguish users. | 2 years |
| _gid | Used to distinguish users. | 24 hours |
| _gat | Used to throttle request rate. If Google Analytics is deployed via Google Tag Manager, this cookie will be named _dc_gtm_. | 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 – 1 year |
| _gac | Contains campaign related information for the user. If you have linked your Google Analytics and Google Ads accounts, Google Ads website conversion tags will read this cookie unless you opt-out. | 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. | 2 years from set / update |
| __utmt | Used to throttle request rate. | 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. | 30 mins 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. | End of browser session |
| __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. | 6 months from set / update |
| __utmv | Used to store visitor-level custom variable data. This cookie is created when a developer uses the _setCustomVar method with a visitor level custom variable. This cookie was also used for the deprecated _setVar method. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to Google Analytics. | 2 years from set / update |
| __utmx | Used to determine a user’s inclusion in an experiment. | 18 months |
| __utmxx | Used to determine the expiry of experiments a user has been included in. | 18 months |
| _gaexp | Used to determine a user’s inclusion in an experiment and the expiry of experiments a user has been included in. | Typically 90 days |
| _opt_awcid | Used for campaigns mapped to Google Ads Customer IDs. | 24 hours |
| _opt_awmid | Used for campaigns mapped to Google Ads Campaign IDs. | 24 hours |
| _opt_awgid | Used for campaigns mapped to Google Ads Ad Group IDs | 24 hours |
| _opt_awkid | Used for campaigns mapped to Google Ads Criterion IDs | 24 hours |
| _opt_utmc | Stores the last utm_campaign query parameter. | 24 hours |
| _opt_expid | This cookie is created when running a redirect experiment. It stores the experiment ID, the variant ID and the referrer to the page that’s being redirected. | 10 seconds |
Complete details about all of the cookies listed above can be viewed by clicking here.
How do I manage my cookie preferences?
You can also block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, 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.
For more information about cookies generally, you may want to visit www.allaboutcookies.org. The Information Commissioner’s Office also provides information at ico.org/your-data-matters/online/cookies.
This policy was last updated in: September 2021
