Privacy statement

We want to make this website easy, useful and reliable. This sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your computer called cookies. We do not use them to identify you personally.

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

  • to remember your preferences so that they remain set throughout your visit and are there when you visit again;
  • so the service is available when you want it and fast, we measure numbers and volumes of visitors
  • To understand what visitors want to use and not to use, so we can improve the service you receive and archive what is not used

You can manage these small files yourself and learn more about them from the BBC's What are cookies page.

Cookies used on this website

Two types of cookies are used by this website; google analytics cookies for tracking, and user preference cookies, to remember if you've selected one of the accessibility settings.

User tracking cookies

Google analytics cookies - used for tracking visitors
Name Typical content Expiry
_utma Random number 2 years
_utmb Random number 30 minutes
_utmc Random number End of session
_utmz Random number and referring website 6 months

To stop Google collecting this information opt out of all Google analytics at Google Analytics opt out.

User preference cookies

User preference cookies
Name Typical content Expiry
textSizeClass Preferred font size 1 year
css Preferred colour scheme 1 year

Information about the user preferences is on our accessibility page.