We would like to put small files (known as ‘cookies’) on your computer or other device to collect information about how you browse the site. We would also like to use cookies and similar technologies to see how our online advertising is working, such as checking which Facebook ads work best and whether people who click them use the site to find information or access our services.

We don’t use these technologies to identify you personally, and we won’t use non-essential cookies unless you give your permission first.

When you make a choice, we will store a small cookie to remember your choices. This means that if you return to the site, we’ll remember what you decided, and won’t ask you to choose again. This cookie doesn’t store any directly identifiable information about you.

 

Cookie Purpose Expiry
wpgdprc-consent To remember your cookies preferences 1 year

Analytics

We use cookies from Google Analytics to measure how you use our website, including which pages you visit, which links you click on and where you came from when you visited us. These reports help us make sure that the site is easy to use and helpful. They also help us keep improving the site for you.

These cookies collect information in a way that doesn’t directly identify anyone. Check Google’s privacy page and Twitter’s privacy page to find out more.

You can change whether you agree to us using Analytics cookies at any time – manage your cookie settings.

We would like to set the following Analytics cookies

 

Cookie Purpose Expiry
_ga
_gali
_gat_UA-54390583-12
_gcl_au
_gid
These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our website. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the website. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify anyone, including the number of visitors to the website, where visitors have come to the website from and the pages they visited.
Read Google’s overview of privacy and safeguarding data
Up to 2 years
collect Used to send data to Google Analytics about the visitor’s device and behavior. Tracks the visitor across devices and marketing channels. When session ends
personalization_id This cookie is set by Twitter – The cookie allows the visitor to share content from the website onto their Twitter profile. 2 years

Marketing

We use information provided by advertising platform cookies and pixels to improve our advertising and our website. This data can tell us which specific ads you have clicked to reach the site and what actions you took when you visited – for example whether you followed the link to Check your State Pension online. This can help us improve our advertising by focusing on the most successful adverts. It can also help avoid showing ads that you’ve seen before.

Those third party platforms, including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, may use cookies or other similar technologies to collect or receive information from our website and elsewhere on the internet. They may use that data to help measure the effectiveness of adverts and target other ads based on your interests. Click the links to visit their privacy policies.

We set the following marketing cookies

Cookie Purpose Expiry
MUID Used widely by Microsoft as a unique user ID. The cookie enables user tracking by synchronising the ID across many Microsoft domains. 1 year
MUIDB Registers data on visitors from multiple visits and on multiple websites. This information is used to measure the efficiency of advertisement on websites. 1 year
r/collect This cookie is used to send data to Google Analytics about the visitor’s device and behavior. It tracks the visitor across devices and marketing channels. When session ends
_fbp Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers. 3 months
_gcl_au Used by Google AdSense for experimenting with advertisement efficiency across websites using their services. 3 months
fr Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers. 3 months
tr Used by Facebook to deliver a series of advertisement products such as real time bidding from third party advertisers. When session ends
ads/ga-audiences Used by Google AdWords to re-engage visitors that are likely to convert to customers based on the visitor’s online behaviour across websites. When session ends
i/adsct The cookie is used by Twitter.com in order to determine the number of visitors accessing the website through twitter advertisement content. When session ends
yt-remote-cast-installed Stores the user’s video player preferences using embedded YouTube video When the session ends
yt-remote-connected-devices Stores the user’s video player preferences using embedded YouTube video Persistent
yt-remote-device-id Stores the user’s video player preferences using embedded YouTube video Persistent
yt-remote-fast-check-period Stores the user’s video player preferences using embedded YouTube video When the session ends
yt-remote-session-app Stores the user’s video player preferences using embedded YouTube video When the session ends
yt-remote-session-name Stores the user’s video player preferences using embedded YouTube video When the session ends

 

to us using Marketing cookies at any time – manage your cookie settings.

Visiting other sites

We link to some GOV.UK services or other sites which can set additional cookies and have their own cookies policies. Most sites will allow you to change your own cookie settings.