Cookies are small files that a website asks your browser to keep, so that it can recognise your browser from one page to the next. This page lists every cookie our website uses, and why.
You can change your cookie settings at any time. The same link is at the foot of every page.
Cookies we always use
These are needed for the website to work. They are not used to follow you around the internet, and the law does not need your consent for them.
- ASPSESSIONID (followed by a few letters that vary) - keeps track of a single visit, for example while you book a place at an event. Deleted when you close your browser.
- ARRAffinity and ARRAffinitySameSite - set by Microsoft Azure, which hosts our website, so that every page of your visit comes from the same server. Deleted when you close your browser.
- fva_website_session - keeps you signed in, if you sign in. Lasts 60 days, or until you sign out.
- gfa, grr, mtt, pgl, fva_mailing, f50 and brt - each is set only if you open a personal link we sent you, and remembers it so that you can carry on: a grant application (gfa), a referee's reference (grr), a meeting poll (mtt), Policy Guides (pgl), your bulletin choices (fva_mailing), the Fife50 partner form (f50) and the board review survey (brt). Deleted when you close your browser.
- CookieScriptConsent - remembers the choice you made on our cookie banner, so that we do not ask on every page. Lasts 30 days.
- __cf_bm and cf_clearance - may be set by Cloudflare, which delivers and protects our website, to tell people apart from automated programs, for example after a security check. They are short-lived.
Analytics cookies - only if you agree
We use these only if you choose Accept on our cookie banner. They let Google Analytics tell us, in total, how our website is used - which pages are read, for how long, and how people find us - so that we can improve it. We do not use them to identify you, and we use no advertising cookies.
- _ga - tells one visitor's browser from another's. Lasts 2 years.
- _ga_00SS438MTE - keeps track of the current visit. Lasts 2 years.
If you choose Decline, or make no choice, these cookies are not set. Google processes analytics information on its own systems, which may be outside the UK; how Google uses information from sites that use its services explains more.
Counting visits without cookies
We also count visits with figures from Cloudflare, which delivers our website. They are worked out from Cloudflare's own records of requests to the site, with automated traffic left out, and they are only ever totals. They use no cookies and do not identify anybody, so they do not depend on what you choose on the banner.
Other services our pages use
Our pages load their typeface from Google Fonts and part of their design from jsDelivr. The maps on the Directory of services and Grants awarded pages load map images from OpenStreetMap and a mapping script from cdnjs, and some forms use Cloudflare Turnstile to check that a person, not a program, is sending them. To send these, those services see your device's internet address, as any website you visit does. They do not set cookies on our website.
When you sign in (which is entirely optional to use a few of the features on our website), you go to the sign-in pages of Auth0, which set their own cookies to keep signing in secure. Links to other websites, such as YouTube, take you to that website, and its own cookie rules then apply.
Changing your mind
Choose Cookie settings, here or at the foot of any page, to open the cookie banner again and change your choice.
You can also block or delete cookies in your browser's settings. If you block the cookies we always use, parts of the site will not work - signing in, booking a place, and the forms you reach from a link we sent you.
