It is also unecessary to have cookies on a gov healthcare website. They can measure/track/count traffic and statistics from their servers' logs and run cookies-free environments. Exactly to reduce stress and confusion to people who lack these basic IT skills.

> Exactly to reduce stress and confusion to people who lack these basic IT skills.

Have you run user testing to see if people who lack IT skills find cookie warnings confusing?

Do you think it would have been missed by Gov.UK's own user testing?

If you don't like tracking you can come out and say that rather than couch it in the language of some voiceless 'confused' IT user.

You'd likely be on former ground too - as the Gov.UK site sets more or less a gold standard for usability.

Besides that, even if you tracked using server logs you are likely using PII so would still need the same warning anyway.

I don't think the law is dumb but the implementation certainly is. The settings should be incorporated into the browser so your browser tells the site what your preferences are. Then you only have to set them once.