What cookies are
A cookie is a small text file that a website asks your browser to store. It can be read back later, which lets a site remember something between page loads or between visits. Similar technologies such as local storage do much the same job and are covered by this policy too.
Some cookies are needed for a site to work at all. Others are optional and used for things like measuring how a site is used. Under UK law we may only set the optional ones if you agree first, which is why you see a banner when you first arrive.
What we set
We keep this deliberately short. We do not run advertising, we do not use social media tracking pixels and we do not share your browsing data with third parties for marketing.
Strictly necessary
Set without asking, because the site cannot do its job without them and because storing your cookie choice is itself exempt from consent.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| sl_consent | Supply Lens | Remembers whether you accepted or declined analytics, so we do not ask again on every page. Necessary | 180 days |
Analytics
Only set if you accept. If you decline, none of these are created, and any that already exist from a previous visit are removed.
| Name | Set by | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
| _ga | Google Analytics | Distinguishes one visitor from another so we can count how many people use the site. Optional | 2 years |
| _ga_<ID> | Google Analytics | Keeps track of the current visit, so several page views are understood as one session rather than several people. Optional | 2 years |
We use Google Analytics to understand which pages are read, how people arrive and roughly where in the world they are. We look at this in aggregate. We do not use it to identify individuals, and we have IP anonymisation enabled.
Google acts as a processor for this data. Their own handling of it is covered by the Google privacy policy, and you can opt out of Google Analytics across every site you visit using Google's browser add-on.
Changing your mind
Your choice is not permanent and declining costs you nothing. Every part of this site works identically either way.
We also ask again after 180 days rather than treating a decision you made a long time ago as current.
If your browser sends a Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track signal, we treat that as a decline and never show the banner at all.
You can additionally clear or block cookies in your browser settings. Every major browser lets you delete existing cookies and refuse new ones, though blocking cookies site-wide can affect how other websites behave.
Test and staging sites
We run a staging copy of this site for development. Analytics never loads there, regardless of any choice made, so testing does not affect our figures and does not track you.
Changes to this policy
If we add anything that sets a cookie we will update this page and, where the change is material, ask for your consent again rather than relying on a decision you made about something else. The date at the top reflects the last change.
Getting in touch
If you have a question about this policy or about how we handle your data, contact us and we will answer. Details of how we act as a data processor for customer data, which is a separate matter from this website, are in our data processing terms.
Questions about your data?
We would rather answer a question than have you wonder. Get in touch and a person will reply.
Talk to the team