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Flood information service Cookies

Cookies are small files put onto your device when you visit and browse a website. They’re used to:

  • measure how you use the website so it can be improved to suit your needs
  • remember the notifications you've seen so you're not shown them again

Cookies aren't used to identify you.

You can delete cookies from your device. Find out how to manage cookies.

The cookies we use

Introductory message cookie

When you first visit these pages, you may see a cookie message appear at the top of the screen. Once you’ve seen the message, we store a cookie on your device so your browser does not show it again.

Cookie name What it does How long it stays on your device
seen_cookie_message Stops the browser showing the cookie message after the first showing 1 month

Google Analytics cookies

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how people use our services. This information helps us to make improvements.

Google Analytics cookies collect and store information about:

  • the pages you visit
  • how long you spend on each page
  • how you got to the service
  • what you click on while you’re using the service
Cookie name What it does How long it stays on your device
_ga Helps us count how many people visit GOV.UK by tracking if you’ve visited before. 2 years
_gid Helps us count how many people visit GOV.UK by tracking if you’ve visited before. 24 hours
_gat Manages 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 GOV.UK or to a certain page 2 years
_utmb This works with _utmc to calculate the average length of time you spend on GOV.UK 30 minutes
_utmc This works with _utmb to calculate when you close your browser Until you close your browser
_utmz This tells us how you reached GOV.UK (for example from another website or a search engine) 6 months

You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Quick feedback cookies

We install these cookie when we’re using a ‘was this useful’ button to evaluate new content. The cookie stops the question appearing if you’ve already answered it.

Cookie name What it does How long it stays on your device
quick-feedback Tells us you’ve chosen Yes or No so we don’t ask the question again. 24 hours

Making secure connections to websites

Your browser uses cookies to make secure connections to websites with a ‘https’ URL. There are different versions for different levels of security.

Cookie name What it does How long it stays on your device
TLSVersion Tells us the highest version of TLS your browser uses so we can decide which versions to keep supporting Until you close your browser

JavaScript detection

We measure how many people visiting our pages are using JavaScript. We tell you if you don’t have it installed or if your version is out of date.