Details about our cookies
The National Archives put small files – known as ‘cookies’ – onto your computer to collect information about how you browse the site. Find out more about the cookies we use, what they are for and when they expire.
Cookies on our main site
Our main site is nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Strictly necessary cookies
These are necessary to make our site work. You can disable them by changing your browser preferences. However, you should be aware that doing so will mean some parts of the website will stop working for you.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| cookie_preferences | Saves your cookie consent settings. | 1 year |
| cookie_preferences_set | This remembers that you have hidden the cookie notification banner. | 1 year |
| cookies_policy | Saves your cookie consent settings on some of our older sites. Slowly being replaced with cookie_preferences. | 1 year |
| dontShowCookieNotice | This remembers that you have hidden the cookie notification banner on some of our older sites. Slowly being replaced with cookie_preferences_set. | 1 year |
| ds_request_service_record_session | Used by the "Request a military service record" service to identify your session. | 24 hours |
| csrftoken | Used in several services to provide extra security when using our forms. | Expires when you exit the browser |
| nationalarchives-PHPCookie | This cookie connects requests from the website to use PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor). It stores no personal information. | Expires when you exit the browser |
| ASP.NET_SessionId | This cookie is set for sites developed with Microsoft.Net. When a user starts browsing a unique session ID is created, which keeps track of all the information regarding that session. This information is stored in the web server and it is identified via a GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) which is essential for any ASP.NET site to function. | Expires when you exit the browser |
| .ASPXAUTH | This cookie is a randomly generated number set on sites developed with Microsoft.Net similar to ASP.NET_SessionId described above. | Expires when you exit the browser |
| .AspNetCore.Antiforgery. 9TtSrW0hzOs | This cookie is set by the ‘Book a visit to view our documents service’ to allow users to register to visit The National Archives to view documents. | Expires when you exit the browser |
Cookies that remember your settings
These are not necessary to make our site work but make it easier to use the site by remembering your preferences.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| theme | Saves your preference for a light or dark themed site | 1 year |
| dismissed_notifications | A list of dismissed notifications | Expires when you exit the browser |
| dontAutoStartResultsTour | This cookie remembers if you have opted out of the tour option on Discovery. | 1 year |
Cookies that measure website use
These measure your website use and enable us to make improvements.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | This cookie is set by Google Analytics and is used to calculate visitor, session and campaign data, and to keep track of site usage for the site’s analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. | 2 years |
| _ga_<id> | This cookie is set by Google Analytics to persist the session state. | 2 years |
| _ga_X23JJJ1MVX | The Google Analytics cookie used by Find Case Law. | 2 years |
| _gid | Also set by Google Analytics, this is used to store information of how visitors use a website and helps in creating an analytics report of how the website is performing. The data collected includes the number of visitors, the source (i.e. where a visitor has come from), and the pages visited in an anonymous form. | 48 hours |
| _gat_UA (with an account number) | This is a pattern-type cookie set by Google Analytics, where the pattern element on the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to. It is a variation of the _gat cookie which is used to limit the amount of data recorded by Google on high-traffic volume websites. | 24 hours |
| _utma | This cookie is set by Google Analytics and is used to distinguish users and sessions. | 2 years |
| _utmb | This cookie is set by Google Analytics and is used with _utmc to calculate how long a visit takes. | 30 minutes |
| _utmc | This cookie is set by Google Analytics and is used with _utmb to calculate how long a visit takes. | 2 years |
| _utmz | This cookie is set by Google Analytics and keeps track of where the visitor came from, what search engine was used, what link was clicked on, what keyword was used, and where in the world the website was accessed from. | 6 months |
| ga-disable-<id> | Used to disable Google Analytics after if it has been previously enabled. | 2 years |
Cookies that are used for marketing
The National Archives doesn't use marketing cookies directly. However, some third party products and services we use do set them.
See "Third party cookies" for more details.
Third party cookies
These are cookies set by a website other than nationalarchives.gov.uk.
They are set when you click on a third party link such as YouTube, X and LiveChat. You cannot set your preferences for these on our site, but you can block them directly from your browser.
YouTube
We embed videos from our official YouTube channel using YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode. This mode may set cookies on your computer once you click on the YouTube video player, but YouTube will not store personally-identifiable cookie information for playbacks of embedded videos using the privacy-enhanced mode.
Read more at YouTube’s embedding videos information page.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| Visitor_info1_live | This attempts to estimate a user’s bandwidth on web pages with integrated YouTube videos. | 6 months |
| YSC | This registers a unique ID to remember a user’s actions. | Expires when you exit the browser |
| Secure3PSIDCC | This is necessary for the use of website options and services. | Expires when you exit the browser |
| PREF | This remembers a user’s preferred page configuration and playback preferences. | 8 months |
| CGIC | This improves search results with auto complete. | 6 months |
| yt-remote-cast-installedyt-remote-fast-check-periodyt-remote-session-appyt-remote-session-name | This stores the user’s video player preferences when using embedded YouTube video. When the YouTube embed loads on the page, a unique device identifier will be stored in your web browser’s local storage. | Expires when you exit the browser |
| yt-remote-connected-devicesyt-remote-device-id | This stores the user’s video player preferences when using embedded YouTube video. When the YouTube embed loads on the page, a unique device identifier will be stored in your web browser’s local storage. | Persistent |
Discovery
These cookies are necessary for the functioning of our online catalogue, Discovery.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | A Discovery user account session. | 20 minutes |
| Discovery1 | A Discovery user account session. | 20 minutes |
| STSWREALM | A Discovery user account session. | Expires when you exit the browser |
Find Case Law
These cookies are necessary for the functioning of Find Case Law.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| sessionid | Remembers your previously entered data for the licence form. | Expires when you exit the browser |
| dwf_<feature name> | These are functional cookies to help us roll out new features in a controlled manner. It records whether individual pieces of site functionality have been rolled out to you during your current session. | Expires when you exit the browser |
| dwft_<feature name> | These are functional cookies to help us roll out new features in a controlled manner. It records whether individual pieces of site functionality have been rolled out to you during your current session. | Expires when you exit the browser |
UK Government Web Archive
These cookies are necessary for the functioning of the UK Government Web Archive.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| ACCEPT_TRACKING_COOKIES | Typical content: True or false. | 1 year |
Due to the unique nature of web archiving, other certain essential cookies are required in order to accurately play back the content of websites as they were when they were archived. For example, when accessing the www.gov.uk archive some cookies from GOV.UK may be saved to your browser.
Online shop
For details on the cookies necessary for the functioning of our online shop, please see the Shopify Cookie Policy.
Workday job application website
For more details on the cookies used by our Workday job application website, see Workday Cookie Details.
Other sites
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| CGISESSID | This is used for the Library catalogue. Typical content: a randomly generated number. Host: tna.koha-ptfs.co.uk. | Expires when you exit the browser |