GOV.UK
Prison Visits Booking (PVB) puts small files (known as ‘cookies’) onto your computer to collect information about how you browse the site.
Cookies are used to:
- measure how you use the website so it can be updated and improved based on your needs
- remember the notifications you’ve seen so that we don’t show them to you again
You’ll normally see a message on the site before we store a cookie on your computer.
Find out more about how to manage cookies.
How cookies are used on PVB
Measuring website usage (Google Analytics)
We use Google Analytics software to collect information about how you use PVB. We do this to help make sure the site is meeting the needs of its users and to help us make improvements.
Google Analytics stores information about:
- the pages you visit on PVB – how long you spend on each PVB page
- how you got to the site
- what you click on while you’re visiting the site
Google Analytics sets the following cookies:
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | Determines the number of unique visitors to the site | 2 years |
You can opt out of Google Analytics cookies.
Our introductory message
You may see a pop-up welcome message when you first visit PVB. We’ll store a cookie so that your computer knows you’ve seen it and knows not to show it again.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| seen_cookie_message | Saves a message to let us know that you have seen our cookie message | 1 month |
| accepted_cookies | Stores cookie consent | 1 year |
Session
When you use the “Prison Visits Booking” service, we’ll set a cookie to remember your progress through the forms. These cookies don’t store your personal data and are deleted once you’ve completed the transaction.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| pvbs | Store prisoner, visitor and visit details | 20 minutes |