Department for Culture Media and Sport

privacy and cookies

The DCMS website does not capture or store personal information, but merely logs the user's IP address which is automatically recognised by the web server. This is used to record the number of visitors to our site.

When we provide services, we want to make them easy, useful and reliable. Where services are delivered on the internet, this sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, your computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

  • enabling a service to recognise your device so you don't have to give the same information several times during one task
  • recognising that you may already have given a username and password so you don't need to do it for every web page requested
  • measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and there's enough capacity to ensure they are fast

Our use of cookies

Google Analytics sets cookies to help us accurately estimate the number of visitors to the website and volumes of usage. This to ensure that the service is available when you want it and fast.

Name: _utma
Typical content: randomly generated number
Expires: 2 years

Name: _utmb
Typical content: randomly generated number
Expires: 30 minutes

Name: _utmc
Typical content: randomly generated number
Expires: when user exits browser

Name: _utmz
Typical content: randomly generated number + info on how the site was reached (e.g. directly or via a link, organic search or paid search)
Expires: 6 months

For more information about Google Analytics visit Google Analytics website.

Removing and disabling cookies

If you do not wish to accept cookies on to your machine you can disable them by adjusting the settings on your browser. However this will affect the functionality of the websites you visit.

Personal data

Personal data (i.e. information which could identify you) submitted to us, for example in response to a consultation, will only be used to respond to your feedback. We will not pass it on to any third party (including other Government departments or agencies) without your consent.

This privacy statement only covers the Department for Culture, Media and Sport website at http://www.culture.gov.uk/. This statement does not cover links within this site to other websites.