Details about cookies on National Services Scotland
This site places small files, known as 'cookies', onto your computer to collect information about how you browse.
These cookies aren't used to identify you personally.
Cookies that measure website use
We use Google Analytics to collect information about how you use this site. We do this to help make sure the site is meeting your needs and to help us make improvements.
We store information about:
- the pages you visit and how long you spend on each page
- how you got to this site
- what you click on while you're visiting this site
Any information on site usage is received in a way that we can't identify individuals. For example, we never receive your name or address.
We don't make any attempt to find out the identities of people visiting this site and we don't allow Google to do this either.
All information we get through cookies and analytics will be treated in confidence. We’ll never sell, trade or give your details to third parties, unless we're required to do it by law.
Google Analytics sets the following cookies.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | Used to count how many people visit this site by tracking if you’ve visited before | 2 years |
| _gid | Used to count how many people visit this site by tracking if you’ve visited before | 24 hours |
| _gat | Used to throttle request rate | 1 minute |
| _ga_M79014DBWL | Used by Google Analytics to find and track an individual session with your device | 2 years |
Strictly necessary cookies
These essential cookies always need to be on.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| ARRAffinity | Keeps track of which of the website servers users are connected to, if we have to scale out the website when it is under a high load the affinity cookie ensure the users connection isn’t lost. | When you close your browser |
| cookies_policy | Saves your cookie consent settings | 1 year |
| cookies_preferences_set | Lets us know that you’ve saved your cookie consent settings | 1 year |
| __cf_bm | This cookie is used to distinguish between humans and bots. This helps to identify and mitigate automated traffic to protect the site from bad bots. | 24 hours |