Our website uses essential cookies that are fundamental for the website to function. We also utilise non-essential cookies to enhance our digital services such as collecting anonymous information on how you use our website. By accepting you have provided your consent to the use of non-essential cookies. If you would like to change this, please click on 'Change cookie settings'.
Accept & CloseChange cookie settingsxThis site uses cookies which are small text files that are placed on your machine to help the site provide a better user experience. In general, cookies are used to retain user preferences, store information and provide anonymised tracking data to third party applications such as Google Analytics. As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better. However, you may prefer to disable cookies on this site and on others.
Cookies are not unsafe or in themselves a threat to your online privacy as we don't store sensitive information such as contact details or payment information, but recent legislation requires that website owners give as much information as possible about cookies used on a website and clear instructions how to refuse them, should you so choose. If you do choose not to allow cookies, please be aware that this site may not be fully functional.
These cookies are important for allowing your website to operate effectively and as such will be enabled by default. Please note that these cookies do not gather information about you.
As the site is developed via WordPress, there are plugins which create cookies that help with website performance and security.
WordFence is a security plugin used by WordPress to block malicious attacks made to the website. More info on the cookies they set can be seen here.
Litespeed is a website performance plugin used by WordPress to cache webpages to help better website load times.
| Service | Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHPSESSID | This cookie stores a visitor's unique, randomly generated, session id and is used to pass information between site applications to enable them to function correctly. It is forcibly expired when the user closes the browser. | Expires on browser close | |
| nc_status | This cookie is used to optimise website traffic and distribution of services. | 1 day | |
| nc_sid | This cookie is used to optimise website traffic and distribution of services. | Expires on browser close | |
| cookie_analytics | This cookie is used to define the option to enable or disable analytic and marketing cookies used for the website. | 1 month | |
| ow_ac | This cookie is used to define whether cookiebar is displayed or not. | 1 month | |
| WordPress | wordpress_sec | This cookie stores a visitor's unique, randomly generated, session id and is used to pass information between content management system called WordPress to enable it to function correctly. It is forcibly expired when the user closes the browser. | Expires on browser close |
| WordPress | wordpress_logged_in_xxxx | Creates a session of the user currently logged into the website through the WordPress login page. This expires upon browser close. | Expires on browser close |
| WordPress | wp-settings-x | Wordpress sets a few wp-settings-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customize your view of admin interface, and possibly also the main site interface. This cookie is only applied to persons logging into the website through WordPress. | Expires on browser close |
| WordPress | wp-settings-time-x | Wordpress sets a few wp-settings-{time}-[UID] cookies. The number on the end is your individual user ID from the users database table. This is used to customize your view of admin interface, and possibly also the main site interface. This cookie is only applied to persons logging into the website through WordPress. | Expires on browser close |
| WordPress | _icl_current_language | This cookie allows the built in WordPress Multilanguage plugin, to store the user’s current language. This is critical for allowing the site to function properly. | 1 day |
| WordFence | wfwaf-authcookie-(hash) | This cookie is used by the Wordfence firewall to perform a capability check of the current user before WordPress has been loaded. This cookie will only be applied for users who have logged into the website. | Expires on browser close |
| Litespeed | _lscache_vary | This cookie allows Litespeed to store the user’s login status, the role of current user and if it has admin bar showing or not. | 2 days |
| Litespeed | ls_smartpush | This cookie allows Litespeed to store server settings to help with performance. | 2 days |
We use Google Analytics software (Universal Analytics) to collect anonymised information about how you use . We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users and to help us make improvements. Our analytics service provider's policy can be viewed here.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | This helps us count how many people visit by tracking if you’ve visited before. | 2 years |
| _gid | This helps us count how many people visit by tracking if you’ve visited before. | 24 hours |
| _gat_irisOpenWebsite | This helps IRIS Software Group, the developer of the website, to monitor site performance for . The data collected is anonymous and is only used for analysing website performance overall. | 24 hours |
| _gat | This is used for managing the rate at which page view requests are made. | Expires on browser close |
If you wish to opt-out of Google Analytics completely regardless of the website you are on, please visit the following link here to install an addon within Google Chrome's browser to disable Google Analytics.
You can use your browser settings to set whether cookies are enabled or not. Please bear in mind that doing this can have an adverse effect on how the website performs.
Our site uses cookies which are small text files that are placed on your machine to help the site provide a better user experience. In general, cookies are used to retain user preferences, store information and provide anonymised tracking data to third party applications such as Google Analytics. As a rule, cookies will make your browsing experience better. However, you may prefer to disable cookies on this site and on others.
Cookies, are not unsafe or in themselves a threat to your online privacy as we don't store sensitive information such as contact details or payment information, but recent legislation requires that website owners give as much information as possible about cookies used on a website and clear instructions how to refuse them, should you so choose. If you do choose not to allow cookies, please be aware that this site may not be fully functional.
Have a virtual wander around our head office on Peter Street, Manchester. Starting with our main boardroom… Look at those comfy chairs!
*Having trouble? Use the arrows on the screen to move in the desired direction; click and drag on the screen to look around. If you get lost and end up outside the office, simply re-load the page.
