Cookie Policy

We use cookies across our websites to improve performance and enhance your user experience. The below explains how we do that.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files which a website may put on your computer or mobile device when you first visit a site or page. The cookie will help the website, or another website, to recognise your device the next time you visit. Web beacons or other similar files can also do the same thing. We use the term “cookies” in this policy to refer to all files that collect information in this way. There are many functions cookies serve. For example, they can help us to remember your username, any promotion code(s), preferences and analyse how well our website is performing, or even allow us to recommend content we believe will be most relevant to you.

Certain cookies contain personal information – for example, if you click to “remember me” when logging in, a cookie will store your username. Most cookies won’t collect information that identifies you and will instead collect more general information such as how users arrive at and use our websites, or a user’s general location.

What different types of cookies do we use?

Generally, our cookies perform up to four different functions:

1. Essential cookies

Some cookies are essential for the operation of our website. If a user opted to disable these cookies, they would not be able to use the website as intended.

2. Performance Cookies

We utilise other cookies to analyse how our visitors use our websites and to monitor website performance. This allows us to provide a high-quality experience by customising our offering and quickly identifying and fixing any issues that arise. For example, we might use performance cookies to keep track of which pages are most popular, which method of linking between pages is most effective, and to determine why some pages are receiving error messages. We might also use these cookies to highlight articles or site services that we think will be of interest to you based on your usage of the website.

3. Functionality Cookies

We use functionality cookies to allow us to remember your preferences. For example, some cookies save you the trouble of typing in your username every time you access a website if you allow them to and recall your customisation preferences.

We also use functionality cookies which can be used to provide you with enhanced services such as allowing you to watch a video online or comment on a blog, for example.

4. Behaviourally Targeted Advertising Cookies

Our advertisers use cookies to serve you with advertisements that we believe are relevant to you and your interests. For example, if you read a number of articles on motoring, a car manufacturer might infer you are interested in this topic and serve you with its car advertisements. You might see these advertisements on other sites that you visit. We do not tell our advertisers who you are.

To view a full list of the cookies used on our website, please see the bottom of this cookie policy.

Does anyone else use cookies on our website?

Advertisers sometimes use their own cookies to provide you with targeted advertising. For example, advertisers may use a profile they have built on sites that you have previously visited to present you with more relevant advertisements during your visit to our website. We believe that it is useful to our users to see advertisements that are more relevant to their interests. If you are based in the European Union and would like to learn more about how advertisers use these types of cookies or to choose not to receive them, please visit www.youronlinechoices.eu. If you are based in the United States and would like to learn more, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/.

We also use or allow third parties to serve cookies that fall into the four categories above. For example, like many companies, we use Google Analytics to help us monitor our website traffic. We may also use third party cookies to help us with market research, revenue tracking, improving site functionality and monitoring compliance with our terms and conditions and copyright policy.

Can a website user block cookies?

As we’ve explained above, cookies help you to get the most out of our websites.

The first time you accessed our website you should have seen an overlay which explained that by continuing to access our site, you are consenting to our use of cookies. However, if you do wish to disable our cookies then please follow the instructions on our “How to Manage Cookies” page.

Please remember that if you do choose to disable cookies, you may find that certain sections of our website do not work properly.

Which cookies do we use?

• CAKEPHP
• cookieinfo
• _ga
• _gat_gtag_UA_120580708_1
• _gid

More Information

More detail on how businesses use cookies is available at www.allaboutcookies.org.

How to manage cookies:

As we explain in our Cookie Policy, cookies help you to get the most out of our websites. If you do disable our cookies you may find that certain sections of our website do not work. For example, you may have difficulties logging in or viewing articles.

How to disable behaviourally targeted advertising cookies

If you are concerned about behaviourally targeted advertising cookies (which serve you advertisements based on your use of our website and other websites), users based in the European Union can visit www.youronlinechoices.eu and users based in the US can visit www.youronlinechoices.eu to opt out of these third party cookies.

The above websites are not affiliated to our website and we are not responsible for their content.

How to enable and disable cookies using your browser:

Google Chrome

• Click the wrench icon on the browser toolbar
• Select Settings
• Click ‘Show advanced settings’
• In the “Privacy” section, click the ‘Content settings’ button
• To enable cookies in the “Cookies” section, pick ‘Allow local data to be set’, this will enable both first-party and third-party cookies. To allow only first-party cookies pick ‘Block all third-party cookies without exception’
• To disable cookies, in the “Cookies” section, pick ‘Block sites from setting any data’
• Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Chrome. For more information on other cookie settings offered in Chrome, refer to the following page from Google: http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=95647

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, 7.0, 8.0

• Click on 'Tools' at the top of your browser window and select 'Internet Options'
• In the options window navigate to the 'Privacy' tab
• To enable cookies: Set the slider to ‘Medium’ or below
• To disable cookies: Move the slider to the top to block all cookies
• Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Explorer. For more information on other cookie settings offered in Internet Explorer, refer to the following page from Microsoft: http://windows.Microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-vista/Block-or-allow-cookies

Mozilla Firefox

• Click on 'Tools' at the browser menu and select ‘Options’
• Select the Privacy panel
• To enable cookies: Check ‘Accept cookies for sites’
• To disable cookies: Uncheck ‘Accept cookies for sites’
• Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Firefox. For more information, refer to the following page from Mozilla: http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Enabling%20and%20disabling%20cookies

Opera

• Click on 'Setting’ at the browser menu and select 'Settings'
• Select ‘Quick Preferences’
• To enable cookies: check “Enable Cookies”
• To disable cookies: uncheck “Enable Cookies”
• Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Opera. For more information on other cookie settings offered in Opera, refer to the following page from Opera: www.opera.com/browser/tutorials/security/privacy/

Safari on OSX

• Click on 'Safari' at the menu bar and select the 'Preferences' option
• Click on 'Security'
• To enable cookies: In the 'Accept cookies' section select 'Only from site you navigate to'
• To disable cookies: In the ‘Accept cookies’ section select ‘Never’
• Note there are various levels of cookie enablement and disablement in Safari. For more information on other cookie settings offered in Safari, refer to the following page from Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac

All other browsers

• Please look for a “help” function in the browser or contact the browser provider