Our website uses technology to collect information about its use, to distinguish between users, to help us provide you with a good experience and to allow us to improve the site and the service we offer. This means that when you visit our website, cookies or similar technologies will be placed on your computer or other device.
Below you can find a description of each cookie that we use, what it does and whether or not it collects personal data about you. Personal data means data which identifies or can be used to identify you as an individual, including online identifiers such as your IP address. It also includes pseudonymous identifiers (e.g. strings of numbers or letters) if it is possible for us to identify you from these.
Please make sure you read our privacy policy as well as this cookie policy. More information can also be found in the privacy information section at the end of this cookie policy.
Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer, smartphone or other device when you visit our website. A cookie file is stored on your device and allows us, or our third party partners (see below) to recognise you and make your visit easier and more useful to you when you revisit our website.
Cookies allow us to recognise users (where appropriate), tailor the content on our website to fit the needs of our website's visitors and helps us improve the user experience. Without certain types of cookies enabled, we can't guarantee that the website and your experience of it are as we intended it to be.
We use cookies to obtain information about your visits and about the device you use to access our website.
This includes where available, your IP address and pseudonymous identifiers, operating system and browser type and, depending on the cookie, also includes the reporting of statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns.
Types of cookies
The length of time a cookie stays on your device depends on its type. We use two types of cookies on our website:
- Session cookies are temporary cookies which only exist during the time you use the website (or more strictly, until you close the browser after using the website). Session cookies help our website remember what you chose on the previous page, avoiding the need to re-enter information and improve your experience whilst using the website.
- Persistent cookies stay on your device after you’ve visited our website. For example, if you tick the 'Remember my ID' box when you log onto Online Banking a persistent cookie will be used, so that the website remembers you the next time you use it. Persistent cookies help us identify you as a unique visitor.
We also categorise our cookies to help our customers understand the specific reason for each cookie.
Essential cookies: These cookies are essential for the running of our website.
We’d recommend this type of cookie is not disabled because:
- they allow us to remember your cookie preferences;
- they allow you to view the website correctly; and
- they allow us to see if something isn't working properly, so we can fix it quickly.
Experience and insight cookies: These cookies help us to make sure you have the best possible experience on our website:
- they help us to make the website easier to use and help you find what you need more easily;
- they help us to test and improve the content you see; and
- they allow us to understand if you found out about our products and services through a partner or affiliate.
Marketing cookies: These cookies help us manage the online advertising you see from us:
- they allow us to control how often you'll see our adverts online;
- they allow us to show you more relevant messages and offers; and
- they make your online journey better and more consistent.
Disabling these cookies won’t stop you from seeing our advertising. You may see more adverts from us and they could be less relevant to you.
To see which cookies we use in each of these categories, and to turn them on or off, visit our Cookies Settings page.
Below are some examples of how we use cookies:
- Online application forms use cookies to make sure that from a security and fraud point of view we protect your application. For example cookies are used when you save and retrieve an application. Without cookies enabled you won't be able to apply for our services or events online.
- Our web analytics services, categorised as ‘experience and insight’, use cookies so we can see how visitors reach our website and the path they take through it. This helps us improve our service to you. We use Google Analytics, to help us understand how to improve our website, what our most popular content is, and where we have issues that need fixing.
You can manage which categories of cookies that you want us to use on your browser at any time
Cookies help you get the most out of our website. You can however set up your browser to delete or refuse some or all of them, or to notify you when you are sent a cookie and therefore choose whether or not to accept it. You may also delete or refuse, some or all of the cookies, on our website at any time.
Please remember, if you do delete some or all your cookies, some features on our website, such as remembering your username, may not work and your experience on our website may be affected.
Unless you’ve adjusted your browser settings so that they’ll delete or refuse cookies, cookies will be issued or reissued when you visit our website. If you do decide to delete or refuse cookies but subsequently decide that you would in fact like to allow cookies, you should adjust your browser settings and continue using our website. Cookies will then be sent to and from our website.
If your computer is shared with others, you should either set your browser to refuse cookies before accessing our website or clear cookies stored by the browser every time you close your browser to avoid your email address or other details being displayed in the log on field to a subsequent user of our website.
For your convenience we’ve provided links to the cookie management page for the most popular web browsers:
- Chrome support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en
- Internet Explorer support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies
- Firefox support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Enabling+and+disabling+cookies
- Safari allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/safari.html
- Opera allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/opera.html
For more information on how businesses use cookies and how to manage cookies you can visit the following third party websites:
Personal data, as defined in our privacy statement, is collected by the cookies we use, and these are listed in the tables above. Our privacy statement explains why we collect this data, what we do with it, our legal basis for collection and information about your rights under data protection law.
