Cookie Policy
When you visit our website(s) small files (known as ‘cookies’) are stored on to your device (computer, phone, tablet etc) to collect information about how you browse our site.
Cookies are used to:
- measure how you use the website so it can be updated and improved based on your needs
- remember the notifications you’ve seen so that we don’t show them to you again
Find out more about how to manage cookies.
Measuring website usage (Google Analytics)
We use Google Analytics software to collect information about how you use our website(s). 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 our website(s)
- how long you spend on each of our pages
- how you got to the site
- what you click on while you’re visiting the site
We don’t collect or store your personal information (for example your name
or address) so this information can’t be used to identify who you are.
We don’t allow Google to use or share our analytics data.
Google Analytics sets the following cookies:
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
| _ga | This helps us count how many people visit our website(s) by tracking if you’ve visited before | 2 years |
| _gid | This helps us count how many people visit our website(s) by tracking if you’ve visited before | 24 hours |
| _gat | Used to manage the rate at which page view requests are made | 10 minutes |
| _utma | Like _ga, this lets us know if you’ve visited before, so we can count how many of our visitors are new to our website(s) or to a certain page | 2 years |
| _utmb | This works with _utmc to calculate the average length of time you spend on our website(s) | 30 minutes |
| _utmc | This works with _utmb to calculate when you close your browser | When you close your browser |
| _utmz | This tells us how you reached our website(s) (for example from another website or a search engine) | 6 months |
GEGROUP.COM Events
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
| analytics_next_page_call | This lets us know the next page you visit on our website(s), so we can make journeys better | When you close your browser |
| govuk_contact_referrer | This lets us know the last page you visited before using the contact us form | 1 day |
You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies.