A cookie is a small text file that is stored by your browser (eg Google Chrome, FireFox or Internet Explorer) on your mobile device or computer. They are used by websites to store small amounts of data for things like user preferences, or your current login details.

A visit to the portal may generate the following types of cookies:

Session cookies

A session cookie is a cookie which lasts until you close your browser and then is removed. We use this cookie for essential functionality, for example to let you log in to the site, or to remember some settings while you use the site.

Persistent cookies

A persistent cookie is a cookie which remains stored by your browser when you leave the site. We use persistent cookies to remember that you are logged in to the  portal, which means that you don’t need to log in again if you come back to the site within 24 hours. This cookie is set to expire after 24 hours, and will also be removed if you manually log off from the portal “Log out” in the user menu. We also use a cookie to record whether you have read and agreed to the use of cookies on this site, to prevent the banner showing again.

Cookie type	Cookie source	Cookie name	Duration	Description
Necessary	Portal	session-hep	Session	This session cookie lets us provide essential functionality while you are logged in to the portal
Necessary	Portal	Login_tk_hepr	1 day	This persistent cookie allows us to keep you logged in to the site for 1 day after you log in. It is cleared if you log out of the site.
Necessary	Portal	CookieControl	90 days	This persistent cookie allows us to record that you have read and agreed to the use of cookies on this site, and stops the cookie banner showing.
Analytics	Google Analytics	_gat _gid _ga	1 min (_gat), 1 hour (_gid), 24 months (_ga)	These cookies are used to collect information on how visitors use our site. The cookies collect anonymous information, including visitor numbers, where visitors have come to our site from, and which pages they visited. We use this information for reporting purposes and to allow us to understand how visitors find our site. Find out more at the Google Analytics privacy policy

In addition to the cookies that we set ourselves, other organisations which have content that appears on our site may set cookies. Because of the way cookies work, we cannot access the cookies those organisations set, nor can they access information from cookies we set on our website. The third party organisations which may set cookies on our site are:

• Facebook Cookie policy
• Vimeo Cookie policy
• Youtube Cookie policy

In most cases, it is possible to tell your browser to not accept cookies, or prevent cookies being set from a particular website. However, if you disable first-party cookies on this site, you will prevent us from being able to log you on to the site. The following links may be useful to find out how to control cookies in your browser:

• Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
• Cookie settings in Firefox
• Cookie settings in Chrome
• Cookie settings in Safari (OS X) and iOS.

To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org, or www.aboutcookies.org.