Cookie Policy

This page explains what ai.justice.gov.uk stores in your browser, what our analytics collects, and how to turn analytics off. The site is run by the Justice AI Unit, part of the Ministry of Justice. There is no advertising or social media tracking on this site.

Cookies are small files that websites save in your browser. Websites can also save information in your browser’s local storage, which stays until it is cleared, and in session storage, which is removed when you close the tab. This page covers all three.

Essential Storage

When you make a choice on the cookie banner or in Cookie settings, we save it in a cookie and a matching local storage entry, both named c15t after the consent tool we use. This lets the site respect your choice on every page without asking again. They hold your choice, when you made it, a random reference and a code for the version of our cookie settings, and are not used for analytics. Nothing is saved until you make a choice.

You can “like” a blog post. Liking sends the post’s public category and slug to our like-count service, with no cookies and no identifier. To remember which posts you have liked, so the heart stays filled when you return and refreshing a post cannot add your like twice, we save a small flag in local storage. The flag is needed for the like button to work correctly, is not used for analytics, and is not affected by your analytics setting. It is removed when you unlike the post.

Analytics (On Unless You Turn It Off)

We collect statistics about how people use this site so that we can improve it. We do this with an analytics service called PostHog. PostHog, Inc. processes the data for the Ministry of Justice as our processor, which means it may use it only on our instructions. The data is stored in the EU. We use it only to produce statistics about how the site is used, such as how many people read a page or how quickly pages load, so that we can decide what to improve.

Analytics is on unless you turn it off. You can turn it off at any time, and it is free to do so. See how to turn analytics off.

What we collect

• the address of each page you view. We remove anything after a ‘?’ or ‘#’ in the address, except campaign tags (utm_ codes) that show which campaign link brought you here
• how long you spend on each page and how far down you scroll
• the website you came from, if any. We keep only its main address, such as https://www.gov.uk, and not the page you were on
• which of the site’s navigation, links and controls you click, and where those links go
• which part of the AI Action Plan Explorer you are viewing, such as which action you open
• in the AI Action Plan Explorer, which stage filter you choose, what you search for and how many actions match, which case studies you open, and which links you follow to other sites. Before a search is sent we remove anything that looks like an email address, postcode, phone or other long number, or National Insurance number
• your browser, operating system, device type and screen size
• your browser’s language and time zone
• how quickly pages load
• your approximate location (country, region or city), which PostHog works out from your IP address. PostHog does not keep your IP address

What we do not do

• we do not record your session or your screen, and we do not make heatmaps of where you click
• we do not fingerprint your device (combine details about it to recognise it) or track you across other websites
• we do not use analytics to identify you or to make decisions about you, and PostHog does not build a profile of you
• we do not use it for advertising
• we do not share the data with anyone other than PostHog and the companies PostHog uses to provide its service, such as Amazon Web Services for hosting (PostHog lists them at posthog.com/subprocessors)

What analytics stores in your browser

PostHog keeps a random identifier in your browser’s session storage, in an entry named ph_phc_w9XJC6dJFQi76Vzz8U4bnEfnEZL3tiNfcGoTSjVU68Eh_posthog. It lets PostHog tell that several pages were viewed in the same tab. It stays the same for as long as the tab is open, including if your browser reopens the tab after a restart, and is removed when you close the tab. It is never used to identify you.

The same entry also holds the full address of the page you arrived on and of the page that linked you to this site, including any search words in that link (from a search engine, for example), and any campaign tags. They stay in your browser until you close the tab; only the trimmed forms described above are sent to PostHog.

PostHog also keeps two small entries in session storage that tell your browser tabs apart; they are listed in the table below and are also removed when you close the tab. Analytics saves nothing in cookies and does not look for advertising cookies. If your browser does not let the site use session and local storage, PostHog does not start at all.

If you turn analytics off, PostHog saves a small opt-out marker in local storage, named __ph_opt_in_out_phc_w9XJC6dJFQi76Vzz8U4bnEfnEZL3tiNfcGoTSjVU68Eh, so that it stays off, including in any other tab you have open. The marker is removed if you turn analytics back on.

How long the data is kept

PostHog keeps event records for up to seven years; we use them only in aggregate.

How to Turn Analytics Off

You can turn analytics off at any time, in either of these ways:

• select Turn off analytics on the cookie banner
• open Cookie settings at the bottom of any page and select Turn off analytics, or switch Analytics off and select Save settings

You can also open Cookie settings from here.

If you have not made a choice and your browser sends a Global Privacy Control signal, we treat that as a request to turn analytics off: analytics starts off, and the banner says so. A choice you make on the banner or in Cookie settings takes priority over the signal.

When you turn analytics off, PostHog stops straight away. It sends each event as it happens, and drops anything it was waiting to send again after a failed attempt, so nothing you do after that is collected and nothing from before is sent later. Its session storage entry (ph_phc_w9XJC6dJFQi76Vzz8U4bnEfnEZL3tiNfcGoTSjVU68Eh_posthog) is removed at once, with everything in it. This also applies to any other tab you have open on this site. On later visits PostHog is not loaded at all. Your choice is saved in the c15t cookie and local storage entry, so the banner does not come back.

Your choice applies to the browser you made it in. If you use a different browser or device, or clear this site’s cookies and storage, analytics will be on again until you turn it off.

To turn analytics back on, open Cookie settings and select Turn on analytics, or switch Analytics on and select Save settings. PostHog then starts collecting again, under a new random identifier.

Colour Theme

If you use the switch at the top of the page to choose the light or dark colour theme, your browser saves that choice in local storage, named theme, so every page, and the site next time, uses the theme you asked for. It is saved only if you use the switch, and is not used for analytics. Clearing this site’s data in your browser removes it.

Everything the Site Stores in Your Browser

This table lists every cookie and storage entry the site uses. Apart from PostHog’s opt-out marker, which records that you turned analytics off, analytics entries are not saved while analytics is off.

Changes to This Policy

If we change what the site stores or what our analytics collects, we will update this page at the same time. How we handle the personal data involved, including our lawful basis and your right to object, is explained in our Privacy Policy.

This page was last updated on 11 October 2026.