Cookie policy
This website puts small files, known as cookies, onto your computer to collect information about how you browse the site.
Cookies are used to:
- measure how you use the website - so it can be updated and improved based on your needs
- remember notifications you have hidden - so we don’t show them to you again (for example the ‘we use cookies’ banner)
These cookies are not used to identify you personally.
You will normally see a message on the site before we store a cookie on your computer. You can hide this message for 30 days, after which you will need to hide it again.
Find out more about how to manage cookies here: www.aboutcookies.org.
How this website uses cookies
Measuring website usage (Google Analytics)
We use Google Analytics www.google.co.uk/analytics to collect information about how you use this website. We do this to make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users and to help us make improvements.
Google Analytics stores information about:
- the pages you visit on this website
- how long you spend on each page in this website
- how you came to this site (e.g. from a search engine or the main BAS website)
- what you click on while you are visiting the site (for example, whether you click links from the main navigation or within pages)
- No personal information is collected or sent to this service (such as your name or email address).
Google Analytics sets the following cookies:
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
_ga | This helps count how many people visit this website by tracking if you have visited before | 2 years |
_gat | Used to manage the rate at which page view requests are made | 10 minutes |
_utma | Like _ga, this lets us know if you have visited before, so we can count how many of our visitors are new or returning to a certain page | 2 years |
_utmb | This works with _utmc to calculate the average length of time you spend on this website | 30 minutes |
_utmc | This works with _utmb to calculate when you close your browser | When you close your browser |
_utmz | This tells us how you reached this website (e.g. from another website or a search engine) | 6 months |
Cookie banner
If you close the banner highlighting that this website uses cookies, a cookie will be left on your computer to hide the banner for the next 30 days.
Our cookie banner sets the following cookies:
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
bsk_cookie_notice_seen | Saves the fact you’ve chosen to hide our cookie banner | 30 days |
Changes to this policy
16th June 2016
- initial policy