Cookies
GOV.UK Pay puts small files (known as ‘cookies’) on to your computer.
Cookies are used to:
- secure your payment session
- remember the notifications you’ve seen so we don’t show them again
Cookies are also used to remember any government users who’ve signed in to our payments admin tool.
You’ll normally see a message on the site before we store a cookie on your computer.
Find out how to manage cookies.
Card payment session
If you pay for a government service using a credit or debit card, GOV.UK Pay uses cookies to keep your payment session secure.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| frontend_session_2 | We use this to secure your payment session | 3 hours |
| session | We use this to secure your payment session | 1 hour |
Detection of fraud
In some limited circumstances, we may use Google reCAPTHCA to help us confirm legitimate use and protect GOV.UK Pay from fraud, spam and misuse. You’ll be required to check an ‘I’m not a robot’ checkbox and possibly complete a picture challenge. Google’s reCAPTCHA technology, when used, will apply the following cookie:
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| _GRECAPTCHA | GOV.UK Pay uses this, on rare occasions, to prevent fraudulent testing of card numbers. | 6 months |
Our introductory message
You may see a pop-up welcome message when you first visit GOV.UK Pay. 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 |
GOV.UK Pay admin tool
Only government service owners can access the payments admin tool. It’s used to manage, and report on, payments.
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| session | Remembers if you’ve signed in recently | 3 hours |
| register_invite | Remembers your registration progress if you’ve been invited | 1 hour |
| govuk_pay_notifications | Remember the notifications you’ve seen so we don’t show them again | 6 months |
Analytics cookies (optional)
With your permission, we use Google Analytics to collect data about how you use Pay. This information helps us to improve our service.
Google is not allowed to use or share our analytics data with anyone.
Google Analytics stores anonymised information about:
- how you got to GOV.UK Pay
- the pages you visit on Pay and how long you spend on them
- any errors you see while using Pay
| Name | Purpose | Expires |
|---|---|---|
| _ga | Checks if you’ve visited Pay before. This helps us count how many people visit our site. | 2 years |
| _gid | Checks if you’ve visited Pay before. This helps us count how many people visit our site. | 24 hours |