Cookies

How we use cookies on this website.

• The site uses cookies in several places - we've listed each of them below with more details about why we use them and how long they will last.

What cookies are for

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 by:

• 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

Managing cookies

To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit AboutCookies.org. Or please read on to find out more about how and where we use cookies. There are two types of cookie you may encounter when using this website:

• First party cookies these are our own cookies, controlled by us and used to provide information about usage of our site
• Third party cookies these are cookies found in other companies? internet tools which we are using to enhance our site, for example Facebook or Twitter have their own cookies, which are controlled by them

First party cookies

Home Office websites use cookies in several places. Cookies are set by our web servers to ensure that your session is maintained for the duration of your visit (until you close your web browser). We've listed each of them below with more details about why we use them and how long they will last. We will endeavour to let you know before we store a cookie on your computer.

Third party cookies

When we use a supplier they may also set cookies. We use Google Analytics to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to our websites and volumes of usage. Google Analytics sets cookies more information is available on the Google Code website.