Set up site privacy and cookie options

Your responsibilities

You are responsible for managing how your campaign approaches user privacy. If you want to use analytics on your site to understand user behaviour, you need users to understand and consent to the digital cookies which store this information.

This is a legal requirement to meet Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) and UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR). If you need advice about your legal responsibilities and creating your policies, contact your department’s data protection team.

The sections below show you how to:

  • set up a cookie consent banner and page
  • set up a privacy policy page for your campaign site
  • set up an accessibility page for your campaign site

Set up a cookie consent banner and page

Users consent to cookies by selecting the option on a banner which appears the first time they access your campaign site.

The way you set this banner up depends on which analytics tools you choose.

If you’re using Google Analytics 4

If you’re using Google Analytics 4 you can use the GOV.UK cookie consent banner. To set this up:

  1. In the left sidebar click ‘Cookies and analytics’.
  2. Tick the box underneath Use GOV.UK style cookie settings.
  3. Under Publish click ‘Publish’ (or ‘Update’).

Your campaign site needs to have a page which explains how cookies are used. When we create your campaign, we include a template for this page and add a link to the Footer menu of your site. 

You are liable for the content of this page and responsible for reviewing and updating this policy’s page for your department. To do this:

  1. In the left sidebar click ‘Pages’.
  2. Find the ‘Cookies Notice’ page (you may need to click the arrows at the top of the page).
  3. Hover over the page and click ‘Edit’.
  4. Review and edit the content of your page.
  5. Click ‘Save draft’ or ‘Publish’.

If you’re using Google Tag Manager

If you’re using Google Tag Manager you need to set up your own cookie consent method for your users. The campaigns platform has support for using CookieBot to set up a cookie consent banner. To add this banner to your site:

  1. Set up your CookieBot Account and copy your ‘CookieBot ID’.
  2. Open your campaign site dashboard.
  3. In the left sidebar click ‘Cookies and analytics’.
  4. Scroll to the bottom of the settings and enter your ‘Cookiebot ID’.
  5. Under ‘Publish’ click ‘Publish’ (or ‘Update’).

You can also set up consent management entirely within Google Tag Manager, but in this case configuration is required within GTM to ensure your tags only fire once consent has been granted. This will vary depending on your consent management system (for example CookieBot). Make sure you follow your consent management system’s documentation carefully, and test that cookies are not set before the user has consented.

You can also follow the GDS data community’s approach to implementing cookie consent, which works with cookiebot, and should work with any consent management system that stores the consent state in a cookie.

Your campaign site needs to have a page which explains how cookies are used. When we create your campaign, we include a ‘boilerplate’ template for this page and add a link to the Footer menu of your site. 

You are liable for the content of this page and responsible for reviewing and updating this policy’s page for your department. To do this:

  1. In the left sidebar click ‘Pages’.
  2. Find the ‘Cookie Notice’ page (you may need to click the arrows at the top of the page).
  3. Hover over the page and click ‘Edit’.
  4. Review and edit the content of your page.
  5. Click ‘Save draft’ or ‘Publish’.

Set up a privacy policy page for your campaign site 

Your campaign site needs to have a page which explains the privacy policy on your site. When we create your campaign, we include a ‘boilerplate’ template for this page and add a link to the Footer menu of your site. 

You are liable for the content of this page and responsible for reviewing and updating this policy’s page for your department. You must update this page so it reflects your privacy (processing) policy. To do this:

  1. In the left sidebar click ‘Pages’.
  2. Find the ‘Privacy Notice’ page (you may need to click the arrows at the top of the page).
  3. Hover over the page and click ‘Edit’.
  4. Review and edit the content of your page.
  5. Click ‘Save draft’ or ‘Publish’.

Set up an accessibility page for your campaign site

Your campaign site needs to have a page which explains the accessibility policy on your site. When we create your campaign, we include a ‘boilerplate’ template for this page and add a link to the Footer menu of your site. 

You are liable for the content of this page and responsible for reviewing and updating this policy page for your department. To do this:

  1. In the left sidebar click ‘Pages’.
  2. Find the ‘Accessibility statement’ page (you may need to click the arrows at the top of the page)
  3. Hover over the page and click ‘Edit’.
  4. Review and edit the content of your page.
  5. Click ‘Save draft’ or ‘Publish’.

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Set up the site colour theme

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Set up site analytics

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