Browser support

Desktop browsers

This website has been designed to take advantage of modern web technologies.  In order for these features to work correctly we recommend using the latest version of your preferred browser.  This table lists the browsers and the legacy versions our site supports.

As browser developers start to increase their release rate we will only provide support for the most recent versions.

Browser Version Supported Supported until Usage on site Release cycle
Internet Explorer 6 No September 2011 0.71% Yearly
Internet Explorer 7 Yes June 2014 17.64% Yearly
Internet Explorer 8 Yes June 2014 20.56% Yearly
Internet Explorer 9 Yes June 2015 14.24% Yearly
Internet Explorer 10 Yes June 2016 5.26% Yearly
Firefox <4 No N/A <1% Quarterly
Firefox 4+ Yes Ongoing 6.11% Quarterly
Chrome N/A Yes Ongoing 16.72% 6 Weeks
Safari 5/6 Yes June 2014 1.66% 1-2 Years
Opera N/A No N/A <1% Yearly

Mobile browsers

This website has been designed to work on popular mobile handsets that run IOS and Android. There is some limited support for Blackberry devices.

All devices should be able to render our 'desktop' version in their native browser either by default or by pressing the 'Switch to Full Site' link at the top of the page.

Browser Version Supported Supported until Usage on site Release cycle
IOS 5 Yes June 2014 1.35% Yearly
IOS 6 Yes June 2015 10.13% Yearly
Android 2.x Yes June 2014 <1% Yearly
Android 4.x Yes June 2015 1.49% Yearly
Blackberry OS 6+ Partially June 2013 <1% Yearly
Windows Phone 7/8 No N/A <1% N/a
Symbian x No N/A <1% N/a

Stats are from April 2013.

What do we mean by Supported browsers?

When new features are rolled out to our website, supported browsers will be tested to make sure that the new features look and work as they should.  Functionality and layout bugs for existing features that are found will also be fixed for supported browsers.

Although we will not spend any staff time or resources fixing bugs and testing new features for non-supported legacy browsers, most of the site's main functionality should continue to work although some layout issues such as overlapping images and strangely formatted bullet points may occur.  This can be fixed by upgrading to a newer version of your browser.