Cookies are small files that our websites place on your device to help make it easier to use. By using our websites, we assume you consent to our use of cookies.
Providing services via our websites means that we sometimes need to place small amounts of information on your device. This is stored in small text files that are known as cookies. Most websites do this to improve how they work and respond to you. For example, cookies may allow the website to:
- remember settings, so you don't have to keep selecting these on each new page
- remember information you've given, so you don't need to keep entering it
- measuring how you use the website, so we can make sure it meets your needs
Our cookies aren't used to identify you personally - they just make the site work better for you. You can manage and/or delete these small files as you wish.
To learn more about cookies and how to manage them, visit the About Cookies website.
Necessary cookies
We use cookies to provide some of the more complex functions on our websites. For example, on pages that are more interactive such as those with an online form. In these instances, cookies are essential for them to work. They don't contain any personal information and can't be used to identify you.
Analytical cookies
We also use cookies to see how you use our website, so we can make sure it's meeting your needs. They can also tell us about things we may need to change to make it better. To do this we use Google Analytics, which gathers details about the pages you visit. This may include:
- how long you remain on each page
- how you got to each page (eg via a search or through our menus)
- what you click on or tap when you're on a page
This information can't be used to identify you. We don't collect or store any personal details, such as your name, address or IP address.
We also use inferred anonymous demographic data to help us improve our services. To do this we've enabled the Google Analytics advertising cookie, but our website doesn't use any of these details for advertising purposes. For more advice read the Google policy on advertising cookies.
You can opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites (not just ours) using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.
Cookies we use
You can find the names of cookies we use on our website and self-service portal, their purpose and when they expire, below.
Cookies used on our website
| Name | Purpose | When it expires |
| ARRAffinity ARRAffinitySameSite |
Added automatically by Azure websites and ensures that requests are load balanced between different sites. Doesn't store any of user information. You see either the ARRAffinity or ARRAffinitySameSite cookie depending on your browser. | When you close your web browser. |
| ApplicationGatewayAffinity | To make sure your page requests are routed to the same server throughout a browsing session. | When you close your web browser. |
| CookieConsent | Records your consent to cookies, records the date you gave consent, and closes the cookie preference pop-up. | One year |
| _ga | Helps to record your use of the website without collecting any personal data to identify you. | Two years |
| _ga_33610E8BVS | Used to persist session state. | Two years |
| _ga_4FR8X0E6WX | Used to persist session state. | Two years |
| _ga_5E94ZYFC73 | Used to persist session state. | Two years |
| _ga_JC2NJLCR9C | Used to persist session state. | Two years |
| nmstat | Helps to record your use of the website without collecting any personal data to identify you. | 1000 days |
| cookiemarketing | Records your consent to see marketing adverts on the website. | When you close your web browser. |
Cookies used on our self-service portal
| Name | Purpose | When it expires |
| ARRAffinity ARRAffinitySameSite |
Added automatically by Azure websites and ensures that requests are load balanced between different sites. Doesn't store any of user information. You see either the ARRAffinity or ARRAffinitySameSite cookie depending on your browser. | When you close your web browser. |
| x-ms-cpim-cache:{id}_n | Used for maintaining the request state. | When you close your web browser. |
| x-ms-cpim-csrf | Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) token used for CSRF protection. | When you close your web browser. |
| x-ms-cpim-trans | Used for tracking the transactions (number of authentication requests to Azure AD B2C) and the current transaction. | When you close your web browser. |
| .AspNet.ApplicationCookie | Used to identify user sessions. A user session starts when a user browses website for the first time and ends when the session is closed. | When you close your web browser. |
| ContextLanguageCode | Stores the default language of the user accessing website within a session and across webpages. | When you close your web browser. |
| Dynamics365PortalAnalytics | Critical service cookie to analyse service usage anonymously and aggregated for statistical purpose. | 90 days |
| WebPageCaching | This cookie is dropped for sites where the content delivery network (CDN) is enabled. This cookie helps the CDN to identify if a page needs to be served from CDN cache or from web server. | One day |
| __RequestVerificationToken | Used by the antiforgery system. | When you close your browser. |
| isDSTObserved | Stores a value to indicate if the current moment is in daylight saving time. | When you close your browser. |
| isDSTSupport | Indicates whether a specified date and time falls in the range of daylight saving time. | When you close your browser. |
| timeZoneCode | Stores the timezonecode field value of CRM timezonedefinition table for the current time zone. | When you close your browser. |
| timezoneoffset | Stores the time zone difference between UTC and local browser time. | When you close your browser. |
Changing your cookie preferences
You can change your cookie preferences for our website by selecting the cookie control tool icon in the bottom left corner of your screen.