What are cookies? 

Cookies are small pieces of text sent by your web browser on a website you visit. A cookie file is stored in your web browser and allows the Service or a third-party to recognise you. 

Cookies can be either "persistent" or "session" based. 

• Persistent cookies continue to exist after you finish your website visit. They are eventually deleted, often after 6 months or longer. They are used to help the Service recognise when you return to the site; these cookies will remember key information about you, such as your site preferences. 
• Session cookies are deleted automatically soon after you finish your website visit, usually within 30 minutes. They are used to help the Service remember the status of your current visit, for example, a session ID might be stored to ensure you remain logged in. 

You can remove cookies from your device at any time, and your device will automatically delete expired cookies. 

First-party cookies entail a small text file that is stored on your computer when you visit a specific domain (website) and which cannot be shared with others. These cookies are set directly by the Service and only the Service can read them. 

Cookies that do not originate from the Service are called ‘Third Party’ cookies. Such cookies are set by other digital services and are accessible by those services only. For example, if a webpage contains an embedded YouTube video, YouTube will set its own cookies to enable the video to work properly. 

You can change your cookie preferences at any time. 

You can also control your cookies in your web browser settings. To find out more about cookies, including how to manage and delete them within your browser, please use the following links: 

• Edge cookies information 
• Chrome cookies information 
• Safari cookies information 

How we use cookies

We categorise cookies based on how they are used; this section will help you make broad choices about which cookies you set.

Cookies required for the website to work

These are known as ‘essential’ cookies’ or ‘strictly necessary’ cookies and let you use all the different yet essential parts of the Service. Without them, the Service cannot be provided. 

For example, we use essential cookies to:

• remember your preferences (for example, whether you have given your consent for cookies to be set),
• remember security settings that affect access to certain content, for example, whether you are logged in or for enabling consistent access to our web servers,

Cookies that remember your settings

These are known as ‘functional’ cookies are used to provide functionality. For example, we use functional cookies to:

• remember that you have visited the website before so that messages for new visitors are not repeated to you,
• remember certain preferences such as language or text size.

Cookies that measure website use

These cookies help us ensure the website is working properly and they highlight when we need to fix issues or improve experiences.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to collect information about how you use the SCTS website www.scotcourts.gov.uk 

We store information about:

• the pages you visit and how long you spend on each page
• how you got to the SCTS website
• what you click on while you're visiting the SCTS website

We do not:

• collect information that can be used to identify you; for example, we never receive your name or address
• make any attempt to find out the identities of people visiting the SCTS website
• allow the tools that we use to find out the identities of people visiting scotcourts.gov.uk 
• sell, trade or give your details to third parties, unless we are required to do it by law

All information we get through cookies and analytics will be treated in confidence.

We aren’t responsible for the information or the setting of cookies on these external websites.

Find out more about security and privacy in Google Analytics and how to opt out of Google Analytics cookies.

Cookie details