• Introduction

    When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

    These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

    • enabling a service to recognise your device so you don’t have to give the same information several times during one task
    • recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don’t need to do it for every web page requested
    • measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there’s enough capacity to ensure they are fast
    • analysing anonymised data to help us understand how people interact with government services so we can make them better

    You can manage these small files and learn more about them from Directgov: How government websites use cookies. There’s also a cookies awareness video (below) and further information on how to remove cookies at About Cookies: how to control cookies.

    Cookies for measuring website usage

    We use Google Analytics to collect information about how people use our sites. We do this to make sure they are meeting users’ needs and to understand how we could do it better.

    Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site(s), how you got here and what you click on. We do not collect or store your personal information (e.g. your name or address) so this information cannot be used to identify who you are. We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data.

    Google Analytics cookies: _utma, _utmb, _utmc, _utmz

    Purpose: To record how many people are using the site and how they move around the site once they’ve arrived:
    _utma tracks how many times (if any) you have visited the site before.
    _utmb and _utmc are connected, and track how long you stay on the site.
    _utmz tracks identifies where you’ve come from e.g. from a search engine or from another website.
    Benefit: So service is available when you want it and fast, we measure numbers and volumes of visitors.
    Data stored by cookies: No personal information about you, just information about your computer and your browser.
    Duration of cookies:
    _utma: Expires 2 years after your last visit to this site.
    _utmb: Expires 30 minutes after your visit, or after 30 minutes of inactivity.
    _utmc: Expires when you close your browser.
    _utmz: Expires 6 months after it was last set.

    Cookies set by other websites through our sites

    We want to provide interesting and engaging content on our websites. On a number of pages we use ‘plug ins’ or embedded media. We embed YouTube videos in some pages, for example.

    The suppliers of these services may also set cookies on your device when you visit the pages where we have used this type of content. These are known as ‘third-party’ cookies.

    YouTube cookie: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE

    Purpose: To track visitor views of YouTube videos embedded in our web pages.
    Benefit: When we provide links to third party services you find useful, they may place a cookie on your device to make their service easier to use. YouTube is owned by Google: Google’s privacy policy.
    Data stored by cookie: Unique identifier, no personal information (data is only used in aggregate).
    Duration of cookie: Expires after 241 days.

    Flickr: localization, BX

    Flickr is a photo-sharing website. BIS has a Flickr account and we embed Flickr images on various of our web pages. Flickr is owned by Yahoo! Yahoo! cookies policy

    Google Maps: NID

    Purpose: Enables traffic analysis to Google Maps.
    Benefit: When we provide links to third party services you find useful, they may place a cookie on your device to make their service easier to use. Google’s privacy policy.
    Data stored by the cookie: A unique identifier; data only used in aggregate.
    Duration of cookie: Expires after 183 days.

    Google Calendars: calendar=dl9x6hEhG0tISUXx_dTt0A

    Purpose: Enables traffic analysis to Google Calendars.
    Benefit: When we provide links to third party services you find useful, they may place a cookie on your device to make their service easier to use. Google’s privacy policy.
    Data stored by the cookie: A unique identifier; data only used in aggregate.
    Duration of cookie: Expires after 365 days.

    Scribd: scribd_ubtc

    We occasionally use Scribd to embed documents in a web page. Scribd’s privacy policy.

    How to control and delete cookies

    We will not use cookies to collect personally identifiable information about you.

    However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our websites, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The ‘Help’ function within your browser should tell you how.

    Alternatively, you may wish to visit the About Cookies website, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your machine as well as more general information about cookies.

    Please be aware that restricting cookies may have an impact upon the functionality of our websites.

    If you wish to view your cookie code, just click on a cookie to open it. You’ll see a short string of text and numbers. The numbers are your identification card, which can only be seen by the server that gave you the cookie.

    For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.

    To opt-out of third-parties collecting any data regarding your interaction on our websites, please refer to their websites for further information.