Cookies are small text files placed on to your computer by the websites you visit. They help improve your experience and allow website-owners to analyse visits.

This is how cookies work: When you first visit a site that uses cookies, a simple text file is downloaded on to your computer, which is then read each time you return to that site. The file, or cookie, can be used to remember user names, passwords and preferences, for instance, or to personalise searches that you have conducted in the past. All of this information allows you a smoother experience on site. Cookies also help website-owners make improvements by collecting information such as the number and length of visits and pages viewed.

You can set your device to accept all cookies, to notify you when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at all. If you choose not to receive cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the website's features and we may not be able to personalise your experience on site. Each internet browser is different, so check the “Help” menu of your browser to find out how to change your cookie preferences.

We use cookies to:

• Gather information on a user's journey across our sites
• Ensure your privacy is protected in our secure sites
• Store your login details for our secure sites
• Temporarily store input information in any of our calculators, tools, illustrations and demonstrations
• Store details of your marketing, product and business preferences to improve our targeting to you and enhance your journey through our sites and partner sites
• Evaluate our sites' advertising and promotional effectiveness (we own the anonymous data collected and don't share it with anyone)

We don't and will never:

• use cookies to track your Internet usage after leaving one of our sites
• store personal information in them that others could read and understand
• sell or distribute cookie information without your prior consent.

We use the following cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies

These cookies are required for the operation of our website.

Analytical/performance cookies

These cookies allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors to our sites and see how users move around the sites. This information helps us to improve our websites, for example, by ensuring that users can easily find what they are looking for.

Functionality cookies

These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).

Third party cookies

Please note that third parties (for example advertising networks and external service providers such as web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

To enable or disable cookies, follow the instructions provided by your browser (usually located within the “Help”, “Tools” or “Edit” facility). Alternatively, an external resource is available at www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org providing specific information about cookies and how to manage them.

Please note that if you set your browser to disable cookies, you may not be able to access secure areas of this website, such as any online services that require registration.