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Chairman’s statement

Erik Engstrom

Chief Executive Officer

Our number one priority remains the organic development of increasingly sophisticated information-based analytics and decision tools that deliver enhanced value to our customers.

Strategic direction

Our number one strategic priority is the organic development of increasingly sophisticated information-based analytics and decision tools that deliver enhanced value to professional and business customers across the industries that we serve.

Our goal is to help our customers make better decisions, get better results and be more productive. We do this by leveraging a deep understanding of our customers to create innovative solutions which combine content and data with analytics and technology in global platforms. These solutions often account for about 1% of our customers’ total cost base but can have a significant and positive impact on the economics of the remaining 99%.

We aim to build leading positions in long-term global growth markets and leverage our skills, assets and resources across RELX, both to build solutions for our customers and to pursue cost efficiencies.

We are systematically migrating all of our information solutions across RELX towards higher value-add decision tools, adding broader data sets, embedding more sophisticated analytics and leveraging more powerful technology, primarily through organic development.

We are transforming our core business, building out new products and expanding into higher growth adjacencies and geographies. We are supplementing this organic development with selective acquisitions of targeted data sets and analytics, and assets in high-growth markets that support our organic growth strategies, and are natural additions to our existing businesses.

By focusing on evolving the fundamentals of our business we believe that, over time, we are improving our business profile and the quality of our earnings. This has led to more predictable revenues through a better asset mix and geographic balance; a higher growth profile as we expand in higher growth segments, exit from structurally challenged businesses, and gradually reduce the drag from print format declines; and improved returns by focusing on organic development with strong cash generation.

†   2017 and 2016 restated for the adoption of new accounting standards IFRS 9, IFRS 15 and IFRS 16.

of science underpinning SDG 3, good health and well-being, and also launched the SDG Perspectives Project on the site showcasing how the SDGs are influencing scholarly debates.

In the year, we used our convening power to bring a wide range of stakeholders together to inspire collaboration on the SDGs including one on partnerships in Amsterdam and one on disruptive technology to advance the goals in Silicon Valley. In 2019, we will hold an SDG Inspiration Day on sustainable cities in Delhi.

We conducted our triennial Employee Opinion Survey to understand the views of our people. There was a 90% response rate, up three percentage points from 2015, with a three percentage point increase in engagement and a five percentage point increase in satisfaction; 85% of employees said we were a company that supports community involvement. All managers

have received their team’s scores and I will be reviewing progress on responding to employee feedback. In 2018, we updated our diversity and inclusion strategy, held our first-ever Diversity & Inclusion Awareness Month, and advanced our Women in Technology mentor programme.

Outlook

Key business trends in the early part of 2019 are consistent with 2018, and we are confident that, by continuing to execute on our strategy, we will deliver another year of underlying growth in revenue and in adjusted operating profit, together with growth in adjusted earnings per share on a constant currency basis.

Erik Engstrom

Chief Executive Officer

Market segments*

* For additional information regarding revenue from our business activities and geographical markets, see market segments section starting on page 13.

Financial summary by market segment

RELX uses adjusted and underlying figures as additional performance measures. Adjusted figures primarily exclude the amortisation of acquired intangible assets and other items related to acquisitions and disposals, and the associated deferred tax movements. In 2018 and 2017, we also excluded exceptional tax credits, see note 9 on page 138. Reconciliations between the reported and adjusted figures are set out on page 176. Underlying growth rates are calculated at constant currencies, excluding the results of acquisitions until twelve months after purchase, and excluding the results of disposals and assets held for sale. Underlying revenue growth rates also exclude exhibition cycling. Constant currency growth rates are based on 2017 full-year average and hedge exchange rates.

Business overview

Scientific, Technical & Medical provides information and analytics that help institutions and professionals progress science, advance healthcare and improve performance.

Elsevier is headquartered in Amsterdam, with further principal operations in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Berkeley in North America, London, Oxford, Frankfurt, Munich, Madrid and Paris in Europe, Beijing, Chennai, Delhi, Singapore and Tokyo in Asia Pacific and Rio de Janeiro in South America. It has 7,900 employees and serves customers in around 180 countries.

Revenues for the year ended 31 December 2018 were £2,538m, compared with £2,473m^† in 2017 and £2,318m^† in 2016. In 2018, 44% of revenue came from North America, 24% from Europe and the remaining 32% from the rest of the world. Subscription sales generated 74% of revenue, transactional sales 24% and advertising 2%.

Elsevier serves the needs of scientific, technical and medical markets by organising the review, editing and dissemination of primary research, reference and professional education content. Building on its heritage of high-quality publishing, Elsevier today applies technology to authoritative information, providing tools that enable faster and more efficient ways of working, freeing up users to focus on their goals.

Elsevier’s customers are scientists, academic institutions, research leaders and administrators, medical researchers, doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and students, as well as hospitals, research institutions, health insurers, managed healthcare organisations, research-intensive corporations and governments.

Elsevier services fall into four market categories: Primary Research, Databases & Tools, Reference and Pharma Promotion.

Primary Research, accounts for around half of revenues. Elsevier serves the global scientific research community, publishing over 470,000 articles in 2018, 60% more than a decade ago. 2018 saw continued strong growth both in article submissions and usage, with 1.8m articles submitted and 1bn articles downloaded by researchers. In 2018, Elsevier published over 34,000 gold open access articles, a double-digit growth on the previous year, making it one of the largest open access publishers in the world.

Elsevier’s portfolio of 2,500 journals is managed by more than 20,000 editors and many are the foremost publications in their field. They include flagship titles such as Cell and The Lancet family of journals. In 2018, Elsevier’s article output accounted for 18% of global research output while garnering a 25% share of citations, demonstrating Elsevier’s commitment to delivering research quality significantly ahead of the industry average.

In 2018, Elsevier launched 9 new subscription and 45 full open access journals, including iScience and One Earth from Cell Press and the Lancet’s Eclinical Medicine.

Research content is distributed and accessed via ScienceDirect, the world’s largest database dedicated to peer-reviewed primary scientific and medical research, hosting over 16m pieces of content as well as 39,000 e-books.

In 2018, Elsevier acquired Aries Systems, a best-in-class publication solutions provider, used for manuscript submission, peer review, production tracking and e-commerce of journals, books and other publications.

Pharma Promotion offers customised commercial marketing services to pharmaceutical and medical device companies, building on Elsevier’s trusted global content brands to connect and engage with doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who are influential decision makers.

Market opportunities

Scientific, technical and medical information markets have good long-term growth characteristics. The importance of research and development to economic performance and competitive positioning is well understood by governments, academic institutions and corporations. This is reflected in the long-term growth in research and development spending and in the number of researchers worldwide. Growth in health markets is driven by ageing populations in developed markets, rising prosperity in developing markets and the increasing focus on improving medical outcomes and efficiency. Given that a significant proportion of scientific research and healthcare is funded directly or indirectly by governments, spending is influenced by governmental budgetary considerations. The commitment to research and health provision does, however, remain high, even in more difficult budgetary environments.

Strategic priorities

Elsevier’s strategic priorities are to: continue to increase content volume and quality; expand content coverage, building out integrated solutions and decision tools combining Elsevier, third-party and customer data; increase content utility, using ‘Smart Content’ to enable new e-solutions; combine content with analytics and technology, focused on measurably improved productivity and outcomes for customers; and continue to drive operational efficiency and effectiveness.

In the primary research market, Elsevier aims to deliver journal and article quality above the industry average at below average cost, leveraging the scale of its platform. We work directly with our customers to understand their objectives and help them reach their research goals in a way that is satisfactory from a content, service and economic perspective. Elsevier looks to enhance quality by building on our premium brands and grow article volume through new journal launches, the expansion of open access journals and growth from emerging markets; and add value to core platforms by implementing new capabilities such as advanced recommendations on ScienceDirect and social collaboration through reference manager and collaboration tool Mendeley.

In reference markets, Elsevier’s priorities are to expand content coverage and ensure consistent and seamless linking of content assets across products.

In every market, Elsevier is applying advanced machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) techniques to help researchers, engineers and clinicians perform their work better. For example, in research, ML and NLP techniques classify scientific content and organise it thematically, enabling users to get faster access to relevant results and related scientific topics. In parallel, advanced information extraction and NLP techniques are applied to extract the most important information for scientific concepts in concise summaries. Elsevier also applies advanced ML techniques that detect trending topics per domain, helping researchers make more informed decisions about their research. Coupled with the automated profiling and extraction of funding body information from scientific articles, this process supports the whole researcher journey; from planning, to execution and funding.

Similarly, in health, Elsevier is developing clinical decision support applications utilising cognitive technologies to map patient and claims data sets, and large image and text content repositories. These applications embedded in technology platforms will enhance the delivery of the right content, in the right care setting, to the right care providers. This will help health professionals perform their work better, make more accurate diagnoses, ensure appropriate care delivery, and save more human lives.

Business model, distribution channels and competition

In Primary Research, science and medical research is principally disseminated on a paid subscription basis to the research facilities of academic institutions, governments and corporations and, in the case of medical and healthcare journals, to individual practitioners and medical society members.

While researchers may continue to prefer paid subscription as the primary distribution model, alternative payment models for the dissemination of research have evolved over the past twenty years. Elsevier has long invested in all business models to serve researchers and research institutions. Author pays open access is one example, with over 1,900 of Elsevier’s journals now offering the option of funding publication and distribution via a sponsored article fee. In addition, Elsevier now publishes around 250 gold open access titles.

† 2017 restated for adoption of new accounting standards IFRS 9, IFRS 15 and IFRS 16.

Business overview

Risk & Business Analytics provides customers with information-based analytics and decision tools that combine public and industry-specific content with advanced technology and algorithms to assist them in evaluating and predicting risk and enhancing operational efficiency.

Risk & Business Analytics, headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, has principal operations in California, Florida, Illinois and Ohio in North America as well as London in Europe and Beijing in Asia Pacific. It has about 8,700 employees and serves customers in more than 170 countries.

Revenues for the year ended 31 December 2018 were £2,117m, compared with £2,073m^† in 2017 and £1,905m† in 2016. In 2018, 79% of revenue came from North America, 15% from Europe and the remaining 6% from the rest of the world. Subscription sales generated 36% of revenues, transactional sales 63% and advertising 1%.

Risk & Business Analytics comprises the following market-facing industry/sector groups: Insurance Solutions, Business Services, Data Services (including banking, energy and chemicals, aviation, agriculture and human resources) and Government Solutions.

Insurance Solutions, the largest segment, provides comprehensive data, analytics and decision tools for personal, commercial and life insurance carriers in the US to improve critical aspects of their business. Information solutions, including the most comprehensive US personal loss history database, C.L.U.E., help insurers assess risks and provide important inputs to pricing and underwriting insurance policies. Additional key products include LexisNexis Data Prefill, which provides information on customers directly into the insurance work stream and LexisNexis Current Carrier, which identifies insurance coverage details and any lapses in coverage.

The focus is on delivering innovative decision tools through a single point of access within an insurer’s infrastructure. LexisNexis Active Insights, our solution for active risk management, connects proprietary linking algorithms with vast amounts of data to proactively inform insurers of key events impacting their policyholders. Insurance Solutions is advancing its strategy to drive more consistency and efficiency in claims through its solution suite, Claims Compass, with Claims Datafill providing data and decisions at first notice of loss and throughout the claim life cycle. Risk Classifier solution, which uses public and motor vehicle records and predictive modelling, is used by around a quarter of the top 50 life insurers to better understand risk and improve underwriting efficiency.

Insurance Solutions continues to make progress outside the US. In the UK, contributory solutions including No Claims Discount module, which automates verification of claims history and Policy Insights, a predictor of motor claims loss, are delivered through the LexisNexis Informed Quotes platform to provide real-time data in the quoting process. In China, Genilex is delivering key vehicle data to auto insurers and is looking to add more analytics solutions. In India, our Intelligence Exchange contributory platform and Risk Insights solution are used by life insurers to predict, better assess and manage risk within the underwriting and claims management processes. In Brazil, Insurance Solutions is delivering telematics solutions, data and analytics to help motor insurers in underwriting and working with health insurers to reduce claims costs and make faster, more focused decisions.

Government Solutions provides a variety of identity management, fraud detection and prevention, collections and investigation solutions to US federal, state and local law enforcement and government agencies. These solutions help verify beneficiaries for government programmes, solve criminal cases, support national security initiatives and identify fraud, waste and abuse in government benefit programmes, as well as identity theft solutions for tax agencies to help ensure legitimate taxpayers receive refunds and business intelligence solutions allowing government agencies to find additional fraud and property tax.

Market opportunities

We operate in markets with strong long-term growth in demand for high-quality advanced analytics based on industry information and insight, including: insurance underwriting transactions; insurance acquisition, retention and claims handling; healthcare, tax and public benefits fraud; financial crime compliance; business risk; fraud and identity solutions; due diligence requirements surrounding customer enrolment; security and privacy considerations; and data and advanced analytics for the banking, energy and chemicals, aviation and human resources sectors.

In the insurance segment, growth is supported by increasing transactional activity in the auto, commercial and life insurance markets and the increasing adoption by insurance carriers of more sophisticated data and analytics in the prospecting, underwriting and claims evaluation processes, to assess risk, increase competitiveness and improve operating cost efficiency. Transactional activity is driven by growth in insurance quoting and policy switching, as consumers seek better policy terms.

This activity is stimulated by competition among insurance companies, high levels of carrier advertising and rising levels of internet quoting and policy binding. We continue to expand our services to make it easier for the consumer to transact with an insurer throughout the insurance process. We are developing solutions that bridge insurers and automakers, utilising connectivity as a means to leverage and monetise the data from Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and connected cars, and engage consumers with driving behaviour information, collision detection and other insurance-related services.

Mounting fraud losses, continuing AML fines, high-profile anti-bribery and corruption cases, growth through consumer and business credit expansion, and heightened regulatory scrutiny

create growth opportunities. The rise of fintech, alternative lending and digital economy companies is also creating opportunities. A number of factors support growth for compliance solutions in banking and financial services markets, including cross-border payments and trade finance levels. In collections, demand is driven mainly by the ongoing escalation of consumer debt and the prospect of recovering that debt.

The increasing demand for our contributory solutions to combat criminal activity, fraud and tax evasion is driving growth in government markets. The level and timing of demand in this market is influenced by government funding and revenue considerations.

Growth in the global energy and chemicals markets is led by increasing trade and demand for more sophisticated information solutions. Aviation information markets are being driven by increases in air traffic and in the number of aircraft transactions. Growth in agriculture markets is being driven by adoption of technology and data solutions plus increasing supply chain connectivity.

Strategic priorities

Our strategic goal is to help businesses and governments achieve better outcomes with information and decision support in their individual markets through better understanding of the risks and opportunities associated with individuals, other businesses, transactions and regulations. By providing high quality industry data and decision tools, we assist customers in understanding their markets and managing risks efficiently and cost effectively. To achieve this, we are focused on: delivering innovative new products; expanding the range of risk management solutions across adjacent markets; addressing international opportunities in selected markets to meet local needs; further growing our data services businesses; and continuing to strengthen our content, technology and analytical capabilities.

Risk & Business Analytics has been developing AI and ML techniques for a number of years to generate the actionable insights that help our customers to make accurate, better informed and more timely decisions. The successful deployment of AI and ML techniques starts with a deep understanding of customer needs, leverages the breadth and depth of our data sets, coupled with the expertise and domain knowledge to discern which AI/ML algorithm to use, in what context, to solve our customers’ business problems effectively.

Business overview

Legal provides legal, regulatory and business information and analytics that helps customers increase their productivity, improve decision-making and achieve better outcomes.

LexisNexis Legal & Professional is headquartered in New York and has further principal operations in Ohio, North Carolina and Toronto in North America, London and Paris in Europe, and cities in several other countries in Africa and Asia Pacific. It has 10,500 employees worldwide and serves customers in more than 130 countries.

Revenues for the year ended 31 December 2018 were £1,618m, compared with £1,686m† in 2017 and £1,619m† in 2016. In 2018, 67% of revenue came from North America, 21% from Europe and the remaining 12% from the rest of the world. Subscription sales generated 77% of revenue and transactional sales 23%.

LexisNexis Legal & Professional is organised in market-facing groups. These are supported by global shared services organisations providing platform and product development, operational and distribution services, and other support functions.

In North America, electronic reference, decision tools and analytics help legal and business professionals make better informed decisions in the practice of law and in managing their businesses. The flagship product for legal research and analytics is Lexis Advance, which provides statutes and case law together with analysis and expert commentaries from secondary sources, such as Matthew Bender. Furthermore, Lexis Advance includes the leading citation service, Shepard’s, which advises on the continuing relevance of case law precedents. In North America, LexisNexis also provides customers with news and business information, ranging from daily news to company filings, public records information, legal analytics tools, practical guidance, and efficiency solutions. LexisNexis also partners with law schools to provide services to students as part of their training.

In 2018, LexisNexis continued to release new versions of Lexis Advance, an innovative web and mobile application designed to transform how legal professionals conduct research and use analytics and data to drive decision making. Built on the New Lexis advanced technology platform, Lexis Advance allows customers within legal and professional organisations to find relevant information more easily and efficiently, helping to drive better outcomes. Future releases will further expand content and add new innovative analytical tools extensively using machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP). LexisNexis employs lawyers and trained editors with professional legal backgrounds who review, annotate, and update its legal content to help ensure the collection is current and comprehensive. This domain expertise combined with artificial intelligence (AI) and RELX’s big data HPCC technology enables LexisNexis to update its entire legal collection faster and more efficiently than before, while also identifying and linking content, enabling customers to identify previously undiscovered relationships between documents.

LexisNexis continues to invest in advanced ML and AI capabilities that help power Lexis Advance. In 2018, these technologies were used to enhance the Lexis Answers solution which leverages advanced NLP technologies, with the introduction of additional question types and features.

In South Africa, LexisNexis launched a regulatory monitoring service for 13 African countries, through its online Lexis Assure product.

In Austria, LexisNexis launched two modules for Lexis360, targeting the tax and corporate segments, adding video content and webinar capabilities.

In the Middle East, LexisNexis launched Gulf Legal Advisor, an integrated practical guidance solution.

In the Asia Pacific region, LexisNexis continued its focus on providing authoritative local online content embedded in decision tools for legal professionals. In Australia, the New South Wales Court of Appeal Analyser was launched with data visualisation, and New Zealand launched ComplyHub, which is a regulatory compliance tool for small and medium sized businesses. Lexis China released a new version of its flagship online legal research platform with improved user experience features and expanded content.

Supporting our Rule of Law mission, LexisNexis has been named among the top ten companies for corporate social responsibility in the 2018 Annual Review of the State of CSR in Australia and New Zealand for a second year running. LexisNexis Australia is also an official project partner in a landmark inquiry led by the Australian Human Rights Commissioner into the challenges to human rights and freedoms presented by technologies such as AI, social media, and big data.

Market opportunities

Longer term growth in legal and regulatory markets worldwide is driven by increasing levels of legislation, regulation, regulatory complexity and litigation, and an increasing number of lawyers. Additional market opportunities are presented by the increasing demand for online information solutions, legal analytics and other solutions as well as decision support solutions that improve the quality and productivity of research, deliver better legal outcomes and improve business performance. Notwithstanding this, legal activity and legal information markets are also influenced by economic conditions and corporate activity, as has been seen with the continued subdued environment in North America and Europe.

Strategic priorities

LexisNexis Legal & Professional’s strategic goal is to enable better legal outcomes and be the leading provider of productivity-enhancing information, analytics and information-based decision

tools in its market. To achieve this, LexisNexis is focused on introducing next-generation products and solutions on the global New Lexis platform and infrastructure; incorporating advanced technologies including ML and NLP; leveraging New Lexis globally to drive print-to-electronic migration and long-term international growth; and upgrading operational infrastructure, improving process efficiency and gradually improving margins.

In the US, LexisNexis is focused on the ongoing development of legal research and practice solutions that help lawyers make data-driven decisions. Over the coming years, progressive product introductions, based on the New Lexis platform and powered by big data HPCC Systems technology, will combine advanced technologies, enriched content and sophisticated analytics to enable LexisNexis customers to make data-driven legal decisions and drive better outcomes for their organisations and clients.

Outside the US, LexisNexis is focused on growing online services and developing further high-quality actionable content and decision tools, including the development of additional practical guidance and decision tools. In 2019, LexisNexis will continue to expand the New Lexis platform globally, including launches in Malaysia and Singapore. Additionally, LexisNexis is focusing on the expansion of its activities in emerging markets.

LexisNexis is also continuing the mission of spreading equality, transparency and access to legal remedies globally through the recently formed LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation, a non-profit entity that will help provide financial and other support for projects that aim to advance the Rule of Law around the world.

Business model, distribution channels and competition

LexisNexis Legal & Professional products and services are generally sold directly to law firms and to corporate, government, accounting and academic customers on a paid subscription basis, with subscriptions with law firms often under multi-year contracts.

Principal competitors for LexisNexis in US legal markets are Westlaw (Thomson Reuters), CCH (Wolters Kluwer) and Bloomberg. In news and business information key competitors are Bloomberg and Factiva (News Corporation).

Significant international competitors include Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer and Factiva.

Business overview

Exhibitions is a leading global events business. It combines face-to-face with data and digital tools to help customers learn about markets, source products and complete transactions at over 500 events in almost 30 countries, attracting more than 7m participants.

Reed Exhibitions has its headquarters in London and has further principal offices in Paris, Vienna, Düsseldorf, Moscow, Norwalk (Connecticut), Mexico City, São Paulo, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney. Reed Exhibitions has 4,200 employees worldwide and its portfolio of events serves 43 industry sectors.

Revenues for the year ended 31 December 2018 were £1,219m compared with £1,109m† in 2017 and £1,047m† in 2016. In 2018, 18% of Reed Exhibitions’ revenue came from North America, 44% from Europe and the remaining 38% from the rest of the world on an event location basis.

Reed Exhibitions organises influential events in key markets focused on addressing the needs of the industry, where participants from around the world meet face-to-face to do business, to network and to learn. Its events encompass a wide range of sectors. They include construction, cosmetics, electronics, energy and alternative energy, engineering, entertainment, gifts and jewellery, healthcare, hospitality, interior design, logistics, manufacturing, media, pharmaceuticals, real estate, recreation, security and safety, transport and travel.

Market opportunities

Growth in the exhibitions market is influenced both by business-to-business marketing spend and by business investment. Historically, these have been driven by levels of corporate profitability, which in turn has followed overall growth in gross domestic product. Emerging markets and higher growth sectors provide additional opportunities. Reed Exhibitions’ broad geographical footprint and sector coverage allows it to effectively and efficiently capture growth opportunities globally as they emerge.

As some events are held other than annually, growth in any one year is affected by the cycle of non-annual exhibitions.

Strategic priorities

Reed Exhibitions’ strategic goal is to deliver measurably higher value and improved outcomes to its customers. It is achieving this organically by being focused on understanding and responding to individual customers’ needs and business objectives and the changing markets it serves.

Reed Exhibitions delivers a platform for industry communities to conduct business, to network and to learn through a range of market-leading events in all major geographic markets and higher growth sectors, enabling exhibitors to target and reach new customers quickly and cost effectively.

We define corporate responsibility (CR) as the way we do business, working to increase our positive impact and reduce any negative impact. It ensures good management of risks and opportunities, helps us attract and retain the best people and strengthens our corporate reputation.

It means performing to the highest commercial and ethical standards and channelling our knowledge and strengths, as global leaders in our industries, to make a difference to society. We regularly survey key stakeholders, including in 2018, shareholders, employees, governments and communities where we operate, to help us identify our material CR issues and to set and test our CR objectives. The Board of Directors, senior management and our Corporate Responsibility Forum oversee CR objectives and performance.

We are committed to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) to which we are a signatory and are dedicated to advancing the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

1. Our unique contributions

We make a positive impact on society through our knowledge, resources and skills, including:

Scientific, Technical & Medical

Elsevier, the world’s leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information, plays an important role in advancing human welfare and economic progress through its science and health information, which spurs innovation and enables critical decision-making. To broaden access to its content, Elsevier supports programmes where resources are often scarce. Among them is Research4Life, a partnership with UN agencies and up to 175 publishers; we provide core and cutting-edge scientific information to researchers in more than 100 developing countries. As a founding partner and the leading contributor, Elsevier provides over a quarter of the material available in Research4Life, encompassing approximately 3,000 Elsevier journals and 20,000 e-books. In 2018, there were over 1.8m Research4Life downloads from ScienceDirect.

In 2018, Elsevier launched Scientific African, an open access collaboration between the Next Einstein Forum and the NEF Community of Scientists, which will provide African researchers with a new platform to boost the impact and discoverability of their research. Elsevier also continued involvement with Innovate for Life, an accelerator launched by Amref, an Africa-driven international health NGO, to help African entrepreneurs develop solutions to African health challenges. To support early-stage innovators, the Elsevier Foundation is providing funding, as well as access to knowledge and scientific networks.

Risk & Business Analytics

Risk & Business Analytics’ tools and resources help law enforcement keep communities safe and help protect society by detecting and preventing fraud across a range of business sectors and at US federal, state and local government levels. In the year, LexisNexis Risk Solutions provided the Police Department in Keene, Texas with a free Community Crime Map tool, enabling citizens to view incidences of crime in their neighbourhood.

Risk and Business Analytics colleagues developed the ADAM programme in 2000 to help the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children find missing children. ADAM distributes missing child alert posters to law enforcement, hospitals, libraries and businesses within specific geographic search areas. In 2018, we expanded an email alert function to allow those opting in, to receive an email notification when a child is reported missing near them. In 2018, five children were found through ADAM, bringing the total number of children recovered to 182 since the start of the programme in 2000. During the year, we supported the launch of a new training course for UK police to help find missing children more quickly, working with Amber Alert Europe’s Charlie Hedges and Missing People. We hosted pilot training for the London Metropolitan Police at our head office in London which covered such themes as mental health, child sexual exploitation, homelessness and family breakdown and how to provide additional support, including Missing People’s free, 24/7 helpline.

To address the US opioid epidemic, LexisNexis Risk Solutions is taking a multi-faceted approach to help customers address the problem. Using our healthcare, identity, and law enforcement data sets, we proactively identify risky providers and individuals, complex prescription drug diversion schemes, and aid care coordination efforts for the addicted.

1. Our unique contributions (continued)

Legal

LexisNexis Legal & Professional promotes the rule of law and access to justice through its products and services.

In the year, we expanded our Rule of Law Cafés – which bring a range of stakeholders together, including customers, government, NGOs and law societies to discuss opportunities to go beyond legal minimums to advance the rule of law – to new jurisdictions. In addition to London, there were Cafés in New York, Washington DC and Kuala Lumpur.

In the year, we supported the launch of the UNGC’s Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions Action Platform during UN General Assembly week and also hosted senior women lawyers from the Middle East region in London, Washington DC and New York City. Delegates met with judges, lawyers, law professors and representatives of professional organisations, legislative bodies, and governmental institutions and explored the approach of peers to human rights, intellectual property and sustainability.

Exhibitions

Reed Exhibitions’ events strengthen communities and support our CR focus areas. In 2018, we advanced show sustainability including with the launch of Proud Experiences in London, the first event of its kind focusing on the LGBTQ+ travel market, which will move to New York City in 2019. Over three days, attendees were matched with international exhibitors to explore opportunities in a LGBTQ+ global marketplace estimated by media partner The Telegraph, in attendance throughout the event, to be worth $211 billion. There were masterclasses on issues surrounding issues arising for LGBTQ+ travellers, including whether they should boycott or support local populations in destinations where LGBTQ+ rights are curtailed. In the year, Reed Exhibitions introduced Bio-Mass Innovation Expo in Milan. PSI 2018, for the promotional products industry, became one of the first trade shows to ban plastic cups. Pollutec also celebrated its 40th anniversary, a showcase for environmental equipment, technologies and services. Circular economy was a key theme to reduce the health and environmental impacts of plastic waste and pollution.

Across RELX

We created new functionality for the free RELX SDG Resource Centre, which advances awareness, understanding and implementation of the UN’s 17 SDGs to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all people by 2030, with a new content management system to make it faster and easier to upload content on to the site. The RELX SDG Resource Centre site features articles, tools, news, events, networking and original research, including in 2018, a review of SDG 3 which showed that related research resulting from a collaboration between academic institutions and private industry represents a fraction of the total scholarly output (average of 1.5% over the period), however it has a field-weighted citation impact, a measure of quality, nearly four times that of research undertaken by academic institutions alone. We held two SDG Inspiration Days in the year which brought together business, government and civil society to scale engagement on the SDGs. To advance the SDGs, the theme in Silicon Valley was the role for disruptive technology and in Amsterdam, building partnerships. The SDG Resource Centre was a tool for women entrepreneurs participating in the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge, a global business competition for women entrepreneurs advancing the SDGs.

2018 marked the eighth year of the RELX Environmental Challenge, focused on providing improved and sustainable access to water and sanitation where it is presently at risk. The $50,000 first-prize winner, Flexcrevator, will progress an innovative pit latrine emptying device developed by North Carolina State University. The $25,000 second-prize winner was Handypod, an affordable sanitation solution by Cambodia-based social enterprise, Wetlands Work, developed for floating communities and those seasonally affected by flooding. The prize was announced during the UNGC’s CEO Water Mandate meeting during 2018 World Water Week in Stockholm; we supported the attendance of three former RELX Environmental Challenge winners at World Water Week, allowing them to meet founders and build networks in their field.

2. Governance (continued)

Reports of violations of the Code or related policies are promptly investigated, with careful tracking and monitoring of violations and related mitigation and remediation efforts by Compliance teams across the business.

We remained diligent in our ongoing efforts to comply with applicable bribery and sanctions laws and to mitigate risks in these areas. Our anti-bribery and sanctions program includes the enforcement of detailed, risk-based internal policies and procedures on topics such as doing business with government officials, gift and entertainment limits, gift registers, and complying with complex sanctions requirements. Relationships with third-parties and acquisition targets are evaluated for risk using questionnaires, references, detailed electronic searches, and Know Your Customer screening tools. We monitor and assess the implementation of our anti-bribery and sanctions programs by continually reviewing and updating our policies and procedures; conducting periodic programmatic risk-assessments, and conducting quality assurance reviews and internal audits on the operational aspects of the programmes.

Following the 2017 roll-out of a Company email ‘PhishMe button’, which allows employees to make immediate reports, we marked our annual Cyber Security Awareness Month with the Great Phishing Challenge to help staff identify the difference between ‘phishy’ and legitimate emails. In the year, RELX won the PwC Building Public Trust Award for Cyber Security Reporting in the FTSE 350.

As a signatory to the UNGC and its principles, encompassing labour, environment, anti-corruption and human rights, we demonstrated leadership by maintaining our LEAD company status, participating in UNGC SDG Action Platforms: Health is Everyone’s Business; Decent Work in Global Supply Chains; Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions; and Water Security through Stewardship. We serve on the boards of the UNGC networks in the UK and Netherlands. We produce an annual Communication on Progress report, required of signatories annually, where we attained the Advanced Level.

Globally, in 2018, RELX paid £415m in corporate taxes. We are a responsible corporate taxpayer and conduct our tax affairs to ensure compliance with all laws and relevant regulations in the countries in which we operate. Tax is an important issue for our stakeholders and society at large. We have set out our approach to tax in our global tax strategy. This incorporates our Tax Principles along with additional disclosures around where we pay taxes and our broader contribution to society, available on our corporate website: www.relx.com/go/TaxPrinciples.

In the year, the RELX Tax team continued to engage with a range of policy makers and special interest groups to share practical experience of corporate engagement on tax laws and the ways such laws can advance government policy objectives. In the year, we also scoped projects on the rule of tax law both in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

The Statement of Investment Principles for the RELX UK pension scheme indicates that social, environmental or ethical issues that may have a financial impact on the portfolio or a detrimental effect on the strength of the employer covenant, are taken into account when making investment decisions. CR issues are relevant to other investment decisions we make. Among our sustainable investments is Agworld, a farm management software platform that allows farmers, agronomists and agricultural contractors to capture, manage and share on-farm data and recommendations to improve land management sustainability and increase yields.

5. Community (continued)

Each September, we hold RE Cares Month to celebrate our community commitment. During the Month, we raised funds ($159,949 to date) to help global fundraising partner, SOS Children’s Villages, enable girls working in dangerous conditions in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire to pursue an education. By the close of 2018, 50 girls were in school or receiving vocational training. Participants also received child rights training, with companion sessions for parents to help them safeguard their children’s rights. An awareness campaign involving parents and local leaders was conducted in collaboration with three community level committees, where girls involved in the project spoke out about the dangers of child labour based on their own experience.

We held our annual global book drive, yielding 7,200 books for local and developing world readers and announced the winners of the eighth Recognising Those Who Care Awards to highlight the exceptional contributions to RE Cares of ten individuals and three RE Cares teams. Individual winners from across the business travelled to RELX-supported projects in Phnom Penh, Cambodia with VOICE (www.voice.org.au/), a humanitarian organisation working with people in crisis in Cambodia.

6. Supply chain

Given the importance of maintaining an ethical supply chain, we have a Socially Responsible Supplier (SRS) programme encompassing all our businesses, supported by colleagues with expertise in operations, distribution and procurement and a dedicated SRS Director from our global procurement function.

We have a comprehensive Supplier Code of Conduct (Supplier Code), available in 16 languages, which we ask suppliers to sign and display prominently in the workplace. It commits them to following applicable laws and best practice in areas such as human rights, labour and the environment. We ask suppliers to require the same standards in their supply chains, including requesting subcontractors to enter into a written commitment to uphold the Supplier Code. The Supplier Code states that where local industry standards are higher than applicable legal requirements, we expect suppliers to meet the higher standards.

Through our SRS database, we track key suppliers and those located in medium and high-risk countries as designated by our supplier risk tool. This incorporates eight indicators, including human trafficking information from the US State Department and Environmental Performance Index results produced by Yale University and partners. The tracking list changes year-on-year based on the suppliers we engage to meet the needs of our business. We ended 2018 with 89% of suppliers on the SRS tracking list as signatories to the Supplier Code. We have embedded the Supplier Code into our sourcing process as a criterion for doing business with us and have a total of 3,082 suppliers who have agreed to the Supplier Code in 2018, up from 2,937 in 2017.

We engage a specialist supply chain auditor who undertook 84 external audits on our behalf in 2018. An incidence of non-compliance triggers continuous improvement reports summarising audit results, with remediation plans and submission dates agreed and signed by both the auditor and supplier.

The roll-out of our US Supplier D&I programme continued in 2018 with efforts to improve the mix of diverse suppliers, with a focus on minority-, woman- and veteran-owned businesses. In total, 11% of US spend was with diverse suppliers. Among them was SHI International. SHI is both a minority-owned and woman-owned enterprise and provider of IT products and services. Their Diversity Business Development Initiative builds and maintains a community of diverse suppliers and partners. They continue to grow an effective Tier II program by accessing their Services Partner database utilising certified HUBZone, minority-, woman-, veteran-and small disadvantaged-owned businesses.