We hope the following statement helps you understand what cookies are and how we use them on this website to improve your experience.

This website uses cookies to help the performance of the website and your online experience. A cookie is a piece of information that is saved to the hard drive of your computer or mobile device. It remembers information about the configuration of your computer or mobile device and will remember that you've visited before. This improves your website browsing experience by storing information so that you don't have to give it several times. A cookie typically doesn’t contain personal information, but other browsing details such as the domain from which the cookie has come from, a random unique identifier code and also the lifetime (expiry) of the cookie.

Cookies may be either "persistent" or "session" cookies. A persistent cookie will remain valid and functional until its set expiry date (unless deleted by the user before the expiry date); in contrast a session cookie will expire when the web browser is closed by the user.

We may use the information gathered by cookies to measure information about our website usage. We can learn which pages on our site are being viewed and how many visitors are using the different sections of this website. This information helps us assess how useful the site is to our visitors and improve the usability of the website on an ongoing basis.

You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you in the manner and for the purposes we have set out. We also use persistent cookies if you have registered for any of our online services. These cookies allow us to make the logging-in process easier and more secure. They will also pre-populate your details should you need to complete one of our online forms.

You can disable the cookies that we attach if your browser supports this. If you do amend your cookie settings, you can still use our website however your browsing experience may be negatively affected and you will be unable to use some of our online services. To check and update your cookies settings, you will need to know what browser you are using (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari or any other) and what version of it you have. You can usually find this out by opening the browser, then clicking on 'Help' and then 'About'. This will give you information about the browser version you are using. To find out how to manage cookies please refer to www.aboutcookies.org or your browser's help options for more information.

From 26 May 2012, new European Union privacy laws mean that you will be required to consent to the use of cookies on all UK websites.