Cookies page

A notice to help users to understand what cookies do. It allows users to accept or reject cookies that are not essential to making your website or service work.

By law your users must be able to give or refuse consent to cookie use.

About this pattern

A cookies page helps users to manage their personal data and consent for cookie use. It tells them what information you store on cookies on their device. It allows the users to review and change their settings for which cookies your site or service uses.

It is important to tell your users both:

• how your site or service will use cookies
• about any impacts on privacy from the cookies your site or service uses, such as:
• what data your cookies could collect
• how you or third parties could use that data

The law requires that sites and services both:

• tell users which cookies are being set on their devices
• give control to the user over these cookies

Identify and categorise cookies

You will need to audit the cookies on your site or service, so you can describe all the cookies to your users.

You should group the cookies into categories. Base the groups on what the cookies do so users can consent to cookies in batches.

For example we have 3 categories of cookie for those:

• needed for the website to work (essential cookies)
• that remember your settings
• that measure website use

Find out more about auditing and categorising your cookies on GOV.UK.

Getting users’ consent

You do not need the user’s consent to set essential cookies. A cookie is ‘essential’ if the site or service will not work without it. Find out more about essential or strictly necessary cookies.

You must get the user’s consent before you set any cookies that are not essential. You can get the user’s consent:

• by using a cookie banner
• by letting the user change and save their settings on the cookies page