Cookie and Similar Technologies Policy

About cookies and similar technologies

A cookie is a file stored on your device that contains an identifier (usually a string of letters and numbers) when you access a website. When you visit the same website again the cookies stored on your device are accessed by code on the website. This means that website can recognise the device being used, and provide useful features such as remembering your preferences or keeping you logged in.

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 that are set by the website owner are called ‘first party cookies’. Cookies that are set by another platform or service are called ‘third-party cookies’, these tend to be used for additional services such as advertising or third-party analytics.

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. In any event, we add an additional layer of privacy protection by anonymising all accessed information and using it only for the specified purposes below.

Similar cookie-less technologies operate in this way but also aggregate anonymised website user interaction data into statistical groups.

We use cookies and similar technologies on this website to enable the website to function correctly and to collect basic data about how it is used so that we can make decisions about how to improve it. We retain this data for fifteen months in pursuit of such functions, after which it is permanently deleted. For the avoidance of doubt, the Performance Cookies and similar technologies are not used in relation to the “Contact Us” page.

Cookie and similar technologies list

We use cookies and similar technologies for the following purposes:

Functional Cookies

These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies (by disabling cookies in your web browser, for example), then some or all of these services may not function properly.

Cookie Subgroup	Cookies	Description	Cookies used
sis.gov.uk	cf_clearance	Used to verify user is not a bot; user/system has solved a challenge successfully.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	_pk_testcookie	Temporary cookie to check if a visitor’s browser supports cookies (set in Internet Explorer only).	First Party
vimeo.com	__cf_bm	This is a Cloudflare cookie.	Third Party
vimeo.com	_cfuvid	This domain is owned by Vimeo. The main business activity is: Video Hosting/Sharing.	Third Party
vimeo.com	player	This domain is owned by Vimeo. The main business activity is: Video Hosting/Sharing.	Third Party
vimeo.com	vuid	This domain is owned by Vimeo. The main business activity is: Video Hosting/Sharing.	Third Party

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.

Cookie Subgroup	Cookie	Description	Cookies used
sis.gov.uk	Mtm_consent_removed	Indicates that a visitor has opted out of Matomo tracking.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	privacy_response	Records the visitor’s response to the analytics consent form (either accepting or rejecting).	First Party
sis.gov.uk	Matomo_sessid	Helps to prevent CSRF security issues when using the opt-out feature.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	__cf_bm	The __cf_bm cookie is a cookie necessary to support Cloudflare Bot Management. As part of our bot management service, this cookie helps manage incoming traffic that matches criteria associated with bots. This is a Cloudflare cookie.	First Party

Performance Cookies and Similar Technologies

These cookies and similar technologies allow us to count visits, user page interactions and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. If you do not consent to us capturing anonymised data about your visit, using cookies and similar technologies, some of these cookies will still be present in your web browser but we will not store the data on systems. This means we will not know when you have visited our site and will not be able to monitor its performance. If you do not allow these cookies (by disabling cookies in your web browser, for example), then some or all of these services may not function properly.

Technology Subgroup	Type	Description	Technology used
sis.gov.uk	_pk_ref	Stores attribution information (the referrer that brought the visitor to the website)	First Party
sis.gov.uk	_pk_ses	Session cookie temporarily stores data for the visit.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	_pk_id	Stores a unique visitor ID.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	MatomoAbTesting (local storage object)	Stores information for Matomo A/B Testing using local storage.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	_pk_hsr (cookie)	Session cookie temporarily stores Heatmap session data when using the Matomo Heatmap feature.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	_pk_uid (cookie)	If enabled, this cookie assigns the same ID to a visitor navigating across all your domains and subdomains so Matomo can recognise users across devices and sessions. It is only used when enabling third party cookies in Matomo’s config file.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	Matomo Tracking HTTP API	Sends HTTP requests (GET or POST) to track page views, events, or visits.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	Matomo PHP Tracking Client	Implements the Matomo Tracking Web API.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	Matomo Heatmap & Session Recording (cookieless)	Heatmaps enable the visual viewing of clicks, mouse moves, and scroll activities of visitors within a certain page. Session recordings enable the viewing of all activities such as clicks, mouse movements, scrolls, window resizes, page changes, and form interactions of visitors on certain pages.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	Matomo Tag Manager (cookieless)	Integrates into the website for the purposes of embedding, data layering, debugging, and integration plugin.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	JavaScript Tracking Client (cookieless)	Uses JavaScript tracker to accurately measure the time spent on each web page.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	Matomo Content Tracking (cookieless)	Uses Matomo Content Tracking to show how effective pieces of content are at generating interactions on different website pages. Counts how long a specific banner was displayed and viewed by visitors and how often visitors actually interacted with them.	First Party
sis.gov.uk	MatomoTracker (cookieless)	Uses Matomo Tracking API to track visits, pages and goal conversions.	First Party

Vendor services

The below table details the cookie vendor services.

Service Name	Vendor	Category	Description	Location	Privacy Policy
Vimeo	Vimeo	Functional Cookies	Vimeo is a start-to-finish video platform giving creative professionals, businesses and organizations everything they need to make and market amazing, impactful videos.	555 West 18th Street New York, NY 10011	https://vimeo.com/privacy

Cookies and similar technologies on this site

We use some essential cookies to make this website work.

We’d like to use additional privacy-enhanced analytics to understand how you use this website, remember your settings and improve government services.

We also use cookies set by other services to help us deliver content.