Cookie Policy

This page explains what cookies are, which ones our website sets, and how you can control them. It was last reviewed on 18 September 2026.

What cookies are

A cookie is a small text file that a website stores on your device. Websites also use similar storage built into your browser. UK law (the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, as amended by the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025) requires us to tell you about them, and to ask for your consent before setting any that are not strictly necessary for the service you have asked for.

Our approach

We keep this simple. Our website sets no analytics, advertising or social media tracking cookies, and it loads no third party tracking scripts. The only things our own site stores on your device are the essentials listed below. We count visits ourselves, without cookies and without keeping your IP address, and you can switch that off in Cookie settings. Some pages include content from other companies, such as podcast players, videos, documents and office maps, which set their own cookies when they load. We ask for your permission before loading that content, and you can change your answer at any time.

Your choices

When you first visit, a short notice asks whether we may load content from other companies. Accept all and it loads automatically on every page. Reject all and it does not, although each item still shows a button so you can load it individually if you want to. Cookie settings lets you choose in more detail. Your answer is kept in a cookie called op-consent for six months, after which we ask again, and you can revisit it at any time using the Cookie settings link at the foot of every page.

Cookies we set

• op-consent. Records the choice you made in the cookie notice so that we do not keep asking. It lasts six months.
• op-nostats. Only set if you switch Measuring visits off in Cookie settings, so we remember not to count you. It lasts a year.
• op-region. Set by our own website, and only when you choose the UK or US edition using the region switcher in the header. It remembers your choice so we can take you to the right edition on your next visit, and it lasts one year. If you never use the switcher, it is never set.
• _vcrcs. Set by our hosting platform (Vercel) only when it needs to confirm that a visitor is a person rather than an automated tool. It records that your browser passed the check, so you are not asked again, and it lasts one hour.
• payload-token. Set only when a member of our team signs in to manage the website. It keeps them signed in for two hours and is never set for visitors.

Your browser may also keep small technical notes the site needs to display and navigate correctly, such as where you were on a page when you press back. None of this identifies you or follows you to other websites.

Measuring visits

To see which pages are useful we count visits on our own server: the page viewed, the country it came from, the site that linked to it, and whether it was a phone or a computer. No cookie is set and your IP address is not stored. Instead we keep a scrambled code made from your IP address and browser type using a secret that changes every day and is then deleted, so we can tell two views apart on the same day and nothing more; once the day is over, the code cannot be linked to you or to any other day. We keep these records for up to 400 days so we can compare a year with the year before. Nothing about your visit is passed to any other company: the records sit in our own database, hosted for us by Vercel and Neon, who process them only on our behalf. If you would rather not be counted, switch Measuring visits off in Cookie settings, or press Reject all. We also honour the Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track signals if your browser sends them.

Content from other companies

Some of our news articles include podcast episodes from Spotify, videos from YouTube and Vimeo, and documents from Canva, and our London and New York contact pages each include a Google map. Loading any of them sends your IP address to that provider, and each provider can set its own cookies when its content loads. This content loads automatically only if you have accepted it in the cookie notice. Otherwise each item shows a short notice with a button, and it loads only if you press it. Every embed also has a link to open the content on the provider's own website instead. YouTube videos load through YouTube's privacy enhanced player, and Vimeo videos load with Do Not Track set.

We do not control the cookies these companies set, so we cannot list their names or lifetimes here. They use them to run the player or map, to remember your settings on their service and, in some cases, to measure how their content is used. Some last for the session and others for up to two years. Each provider publishes its own list.

The providers describe their own cookies here: Google and YouTube, Spotify, Vimeo and Canva.

Links to other websites

Our pages link to other websites, including LinkedIn, Google Maps, event and survey platforms, and the sites of our clients and partners. Once you follow a link you are on that organisation's website and its own cookie policy applies.

How to control cookies

You can change your choice at any time using the Cookie settings link at the foot of every page. You can also block or delete cookies through your browser settings. Blocking the cookies listed above will not stop the site working, although we will not remember your choices. If you withdraw your permission for content from other companies, anything already loaded stays until you leave the page, and any cookies it set can be removed through your browser. Guidance for the most common browsers is available at aboutcookies.org.uk. If we ever introduce other cookies that need your consent, we will ask for it before setting them and update this page.

Questions

How we handle personal information more generally is described in our Privacy Notice. If you have any questions about cookies on this website, please contact us.