NHS cookies policy

Cookies on our website

About cookies

Cookies are small files saved on your digital device, this could be your mobile phone, tablet, laptop or computer when you visit a website. They are generated by a web page server, which is basically the computer that operates a website.

The cookies store information about how you use the website, such as the pages you visit and how long you stay on a website page.

Cookies are not computer programs and will not damage or harm your device in any way. They are very small so do not take up much space.

How we use cookies

We use cookies to make our website more secure, for example by helping to remember which pop-ups you have seen, links you have already clicked (analytics cookies) and these also help us to measure how you use our website and show you relevant content and campaigns.

How we use the information we collect

To find out more about how we collect, store, and use information about you or your visit, see our privacy policy.

Find out about how to manage, delete and control cookies

We use Google Analytics software to collect information about how you use the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent website. We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users and to help us make improvements.

Google Analytics stores information about:

• the pages you visit on this website
• how long you spend on each page
• how you got to the site
• what you click on while you’re visiting the site

Your personal information (eg your name or address) is not accessible via google analytics and therefore cannot be used to identify who you are. We do not allow Google to use or share our analytics data.

Google Analytics sets the following cookies:

gtag.js cookies

The following table describes each cookie set by gtag.js. To learn more about the data that Analytics collects, see Safeguarding your data.

Cookie name: _ga | Default expiration time: 2 years | Description: Used to distinguish users

Cookie name: _ga <container-id> | Default expiration time: 2 years | Description: Used to persist session state.

For further information, please visit: : https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/11397207?hl=en

ID: G-2MYCSW765X

You can opt out of Google Analytics Cookies

Cookie notification message

You may see a message when you first visit our website which notifies you about our use of cookies. We store a cookie so that your computer knows you’ve seen it and knows not to show it again. 

dontShowCookieNotice: This lets us know that you’ve seen our cookie message – Expires in 1 year

Your Javascript settings

Many parts of our website contain Javascript to affect how webpages are displayed, but these pages can also work without Javascript. We store a cookie if Javascript is enabled in your web browser.

has_js:  This lets us know that you have Javascript enabled on your web browser and expires when you leave the website

Twitter cookies

In conjunction with targeted advertising (see below), we use Twitter cookies to collect information about which pages you view on our websites, in order to measure the performance of these advertisements and to help target future advertising.

Other site cookies

Cookies can also be set by third-party domains when we embed content and tools from those domains.

These include:

Facebook: facebook.com/policies/cookies/

Twitter:  https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-cookies

YouTube: http://google.com/policies/technologies/cookies/

Social media adverts

We occasionally use Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to serve advertisements targeted to users’ interests. To opt out of targeted advertising please refer to https://support.twitter.com/articles/20170405 or https://www.facebook.com/help/568137493302217.