What is a cookie?
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 through, for example:
- enabling a service to recognise your device so you don't have to give the same information several times during one task
- 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
Which cookies do we use?
By understanding how people use the website, we can improve the information provided. We use the following cookies on our website. Most of these are set by third-party suppliers.
|
Cookie name |
Provider |
Type |
Expiry |
Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
has_js |
nbt.nhs.uk |
HTTP |
Session |
Registers whether or not the user has activated JavaScript in the browser. |
|
_ga |
nbt.nhs.uk |
HTTP |
2 years |
Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the web site. |
|
_gat |
Nbt.nhs.uk |
HTTP |
Session |
Used by Google Analytics to throttle request rate. |
|
_gid |
Nbt.nhs.uk |
HTTP |
Session |
Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the web site. |
| mmc-cookie-consent | nbt.nhs.uk | HTTP | Session | Stores the user's cookie consent choice. |
|
Collect |
Google-analytics.com |
Pixel |
Session |
Used to send data to Google Analytics about the visitor's device and behaviour. Tracks the visitor across devices and marketing channels. |
|
PREF |
Youtube.com |
HTTP |
8 months |
Registers a unique ID that is used by Google to keep statistics of how the visitor uses You Tube videos across different web sites. |
|
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE |
Youtube.com |
HTTP |
179 days |
Tries to estimate the users' bandwidth on pages with integrated YouTube videos. |
|
YSC |
Youtube.com |
HTTP |
Session |
Registers a unique ID to keep statistics of what videos from YouTube the user has seen. |
How can I control and delete cookies?
We will not use cookies to collect personal identifiable information about you.
However, if you wish to restrict or block the cookies which are set by our websites, or indeed any other website, you can do this through your browser settings. The ‘Help’ function within your browser should tell you how.
Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of browsers. You will also find details on how to delete cookies from your machine as well as more general information about cookies.
Please be aware that restricting cookies may impact on the functionality of our website.
If you wish to view your cookie code, just click on a cookie to open it. You'll see a short string of text and numbers. The numbers are your identification card, which can only be seen by the server that gave you the cookie.
For information on how to do this on the browser of your mobile phone you will need to refer to your handset manual.
To opt-out of third-parties collecting any data regarding your interaction on our website, please refer to their websites for further information.
For further queries please email NBTCommunications@nbt.nhs.uk
Meta pixel
In May 2023 an issue was identified with the cookies consent process and the use of a tracking tool, called Meta pixel, on this website which can be used by Facebook’s parent company, Meta, for its own business purposes. We take data protection extremely seriously and are very sorry that this issue occurred. As soon as we became aware of this issue, we took immediate steps to further protect the privacy of our website users, including strengthening our cookies consent process and removing Meta pixel from our website.