How we use cookies

The website domains managed by NISRA and some of the tools and services they link to,  use a  number of cookies.  These cookies are listed below with more details about why we use them and how long they will last.

Measuring website usage

We use Google Analytics to collect anonymous information about how people use our websites.  We do this to make sure it's meeting people's needs and to understand how we could meet those needs better.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics stores information about what pages you visit, how long you are on the site, how you got here and what you click on. 

We do not allow Google to use or share the data about how you use our websites.  We do not collect or store your personal details such as  your name or address.  We cannot identify who you are.

Name of Cookie Purpose Expires
_ga Used by Google Analytics to distinguish visitors to our websites.  2 years
_gid Used by Google Analytics to distinguish visitors to our websites.  24 hours
_ga_<container-id> Used by Google Analytics to identify and track an individual session with your device. 1 minute
_gat_gtag_<container-id> Used by Google Analytics to limit requests to its service. 1 minute
_utma Used by Google Analytics to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance 2 years
_gat_UA Used by Google to limit collection of data on high traffic sites 10 minuntes

Service availability

We use cookies which help improve service availability and security across this website.

Name of cookies Purpose Expires
NIGOV randomly generated number when you close your browser
NIGOV_.thisdomain.gov.uk_%F_wat randomly generated number when you close your browser
TS* security management cookie when you close your browser
BIGipServer* Used to distribute traffic to the website when you close your browser

Remembering your settings

We use cookies to remember if you have received the cookie warning message so that this message doesn't appear more than once.

Name of cookie Purpose Expires
EUCompliance stores your cookie preferences 1 year

cookie-consent
cookiepersist
cookies_policy
cookies_preferences_set
cookie_accepted

stores your cookie preferences up to 1 year

We also set cookies to remember your display preferences.

Name of Cookie Purpose Expires
has_js determines whether Javascript is enabled in your browseer, it allows the website to function properly when you close your browser
Drupal.tableDrag.showWeight remembers your display preferences 1 year
language remembers any selection a user has made about language 1 year
session remembers users within a website when you close your browser

'Third-party cookies 

Third-party cookies are cookies created by a website other than the one you are currently visiting.  we currently embed services from third party websites to provide extra functionality. 

YouTube

This website embeds videos from YouTube channel using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. This mode may set the following cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player, but YouTube will not store personally-identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode.

For more information please visit YouTube's embedding videos information page

Google Maps

We use Google Maps to provide visual geo-location information on various government organisations and services.

For more information please visit Google's Privacy Policy

Last Updated

This page was last updated on 13 February 2024.