Cookie Policy

1. About cookies

A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

Cookies may be either "persistent" cookies or "session" cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

Cookies that we use

We use cookies for the following purposes:

(a) Authentication - we use cookies to identify you when you visit our website and as you navigate our website (cookies used for this purpose are: identify cookies; [ASP.NET_SessionId]

(b) Analysis - we use cookies to help us to analyse the use and performance of our website (cookies used for this purpose are: identify cookies; and

(c) Cookie consent - we use cookies to store your preferences in relation to the use of cookies more generally (cookies used for this purpose are: identify cookies.

Cookies used on HMIPS

Strictly necessary cookies: [ASP.NET_SessionId] - General purpose platform session cookie, used by sites written with Miscrosoft .NET based technologies. Used to maintain an anonymised user session by the server.


Preferences cookies:  [site-cookies] - this cookie remembers your choice from the cookie banner where we ask for consent to use Statistics cookies.

Statistics cookies: [NID, _ga, _gat_gtag_UA*, _gid] -  We use the 3rd party Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website. Google Analytics gathers information about website use by means of cookies . The information gathered relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website.

Google's privacy policy is available at: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

Managing cookies

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can, however, obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:

We use the necessary cookies to make our site work. We'd also like to set analytics cookies that help us make improvements by measuring how you use the site. These will be set only if you accept.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookie Policy.