A cookie is a text-only string of information that a website transfers to the cookie file of the browser on your computer's hard disk so that the website can remember who you are. Cookies can help a website to arrange content to match your preferred interests more quickly - most major websites use cookies. Cookies alone cannot be used to identify you.

A cookie will typically contain the name of the domain from which the cookie has come; the "lifetime" of the cookie; and a value, usually a randomly generated unique number.

Two types of cookies are used on this website:

• Session Cookies, which are temporary cookies that remain in the cookie file of your browser until you leave the site.
• Persistent Cookies, which remain in the cookie file of your browser for much longer (though how long will depend on the lifetime of the specific cookie).

Session Cookies are used:

• To allow you to carry information across pages of our site and avoid having to re-enter information.
• Within registration to allow you to access stored information.

• To help us recognise you as a unique visitor (using a number, you cannot be identified personally) when you return to our website.
• To allow us to tailor content or advertisements to match your preferred interests or to avoid showing you the same adverts repeatedly.
• To compile anonymous, aggregated statistics that allow us to understand how users use our site and to help us improve the structure of our website. We cannot identify you personally in this way.

Third parties serve cookies via this site. These are used for the following purposes:

• To serve advertisements on our site and track whether these advertisements are clicked on by users.
• To control how often you are shown a particular advertisement.
• To tailor content to your preferences.
• To count the number of anonymous users of our site.
• To provide security within shopping baskets or transactions.
• To manage the amount of times visitors can respond to an online survey.

Some of our Web pages may contain electronic images known as Web Beacons (sometimes known as clear gifs) that allow us to count users who have visited these pages. Web Beacons collect only limited information which includes a cookie number; time and date of a page view; and a description of the page on which the Web Beacon resides. We may also carry Web Beacons placed by third party advertisers. These Beacons do not carry any personally identifiable information and are only used to track the effectiveness of a particular campaign.