Cookies

About cookies

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.

Our website uses various different types of cookies and similar technologies, each of which has a different function as set out in the table below:

[Technical/browsing cookies] If you are a registered user, these cookies mean you will be recognised as such when you access the services offered to our registered users.
[Functional cookies] These cookies enable the website to recognise you, following an explicit request from you (for example, if you click on “remember me”), every time you access the website, so that you don’t have to type in your login details each time.
If you have added items to your basket and closed the session without completing your purchase, but have not removed the items from your basket, these cookies enable you to carry on shopping with the same basket the next time you visit the website within a reasonable period of time.
[Analytical cookies] Not essential for the website to function but these cookies benefit the site by enabling us to gather statistical analysis on our readers and customers, such as location and language or a number of times a user has visited the site.

How you can disable cookies

Most web browsers are configured to automatically accept cookies but you can refuse to accept cookies.

For example:

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”;
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 unticking “Accept cookies from sites”; and
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.

[If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on this website.]