Scientology in the United Kingdom is practised mainly within the Church of Scientology and its related groups, which go under names including the Hubbard Academy of Personal Independence and the Dianetics and Scientology Life Improvement Centre. The national headquarters (and former global headquarters) are at Saint Hill Manor near East Grinstead, which was also the home of Scientology creator L. Ron Hubbard for seven years. 1,844 individuals in England and Wales listed themselves as Scientologists in 2021, marking a decline of just under 25% since 2011; half of these respondents listed themselves as living in and around East Grinstead.
The Church has used covert intelligence gathering, harassment, and smear campaigns against its British opponents, though on a much smaller scale compared to its activities in the United States. It has been recognised as a religion by some British authorities, but is not itself a registered charity. Scientology-connected groups promoting aspects of Hubbard's teaching, including Narconon and the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, have also been active in the UK and have even received charity status in some cases. There have also been groups practising Scientology independently of the Church.
Scientology has received criticism from British courts who called it "pernicious nonsense", "dangerous material", and "immoral and socially obnoxious". It has been described in Parliament as a "socially harmful enterprise" which "indoctrinates children and other vulnerable people" by "ignorantly practising quasi-psychological techniques". The British government's 1971 report into Scientology featured many high-ranking officials deeming it an "evil cult", whilst a secret 1977 report by the Department of Health and Social Security referred to it as a "considerable evil".
Status Number of adherents
The 2011 UK census found that there were 2,418 Scientologists in England and Wales at the time of the survey. For context, this number was roughly half those claiming Zoroastrianism as their religion, and a small fraction of the number of those claiming to be Jedi Knights. The 2021 UK census found there were 1,844 Scientologists in England and Wales, a decline of almost 24% in a decade. Wealden District, in East Sussex, had the most Scientologists, with 402. Wealden District abuts the district with the second-largest population of Scientologists, Mid Sussex in the county of West Sussex, with 368. Mid Sussex hosts the British Scientology Headquarters at Saint Hill Manor, which is in the Mid Sussex town of East Grinstead, in the easternmost part of the district, adjacent to Wealden. These two districts alone account for 42% of all UK Scientologists. The remaining 58% are scattered throughout the country; the next most populous district or borough (Southwark) has only 44 members. Only 5 further boroughs have more than 20: Birmingham (43), Tandridge (26), Bournemouth (25), Newham (22) and Manchester (22). The entire city of London, including all 32 boroughs and the City of London (which has none), has just 258 adherents despite the longstanding presence of a prominent Dianetics centre on Tottenham Court Road.
The Church claims a membership of 118,000 members in the United Kingdom, including 15,000 regular participants, and in the past has claimed as many as 200,000 British members. Given the incongruence of these ostensible figures with the census data, it is likely these claims are merely aggrandising fabrications.
Legal status
The Church's application for charity status in England and Wales was rejected in 1999, on the grounds that there is no "public benefit arising out of the practice of Scientology". (PDF) In 2000, however, the Church of Scientology was exempted from UK value added tax on the basis that it was said to be a not-for-profit body. As a result of the decision, Revenue and Customs reportedly had to return several million pounds' worth of past VAT payments to the institution.
While the Church of Scientology itself does not have charitable status, several of its related organisations do, including Greenfields School and Narconon. The governing organisation of Scientology in the UK, Church of Scientology Religious Education College, Inc (COSRECI), is a corporation registered in South Australia. While a court judgement there recognises Scientology as a religion, COSRECI itself is not registered as a charity.Seymour, B (20210): "Scientology tax", TodayTonight, Channel 7
In 1999 CoS provided documents to the Charity Commission including a letter purported to originate from the Ministry of Defence that confirmed that Scientology is "an officially recognised religion in the Royal Navy". However, the 2012 Royal Navy Personnel Management Manual (in Chapter 31 - Religion and Faiths) makes no reference to Scientology. The Prison Service in England and Wales does not recognise Scientology as a religion. Under Scots law, Scientology ministers had been authorised to perform marriages in Scotland even prior to the December 2013 Supreme Court decision.
In September 2023, online publication Scientology Business reported that in response to a Freedom of Information Act Request, the Charity Commission for England and Wales confirmed that due to the Charities Act 2006 statute of limitations, Scientology are no longer able to appeal the 1999 rejection for tax-exempt status, and upheld their earlier ruling that it does not serve a public benefit in the United Kingdom.
Recognition for marriage purposes
In 2013, a case was brought against the Registrar General by two Scientologists who wished to be married in the chapel at the Church of Scientology in London but had been refused on the basis of a court ruling in the 1970s that Scientologists do not worship a god and therefore Scientology could not be considered a religion. On 11 Dec 2013, the Supreme Court in the UK overruled the previous ruling in R (on the application of Hodkin and another) v Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages. In the Supreme Court's judgement, it established a new legal definition for religion as "a spiritual or non-secular belief system, held by a group of adherents, which claims to explain mankind’s place in the universe and relationship with the infinite, and to teach its adherents how they are to live their lives in conformity with the spiritual understanding associated with the belief system." Lord Toulson concluded that Scientology subsequently does meet that definition of a religion in the UK and ordered the Registrar General to recognise the Chapel at the Church of Scientology in London as a place of worship and as a place for the solemnisation of marriages under section 41(1) of the Marriage Act. The ruling does not affect the legal status of the Church of Scientology in charity law. According to its filing under the Marriage Act, Scientology will not conduct same-sex weddings in any of its UK premises.
Beginnings Hubbard established an organisation called the Dianetic Foundation of Great Britain in 1952. From 1957 to 1959, Hubbard lived and wrote at Fitzroy House in the West End of London. The house was sold off in 1968 but later bought back by the Church of Scientology and is now a museum in honour of Hubbard.
East Grinstead The global headquarters of the Scientology movement from 1959 to 1966 was Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, Sussex, a manor house dating from 1733. This is the most famous of the Church's "Advanced Organisations", delivering Operating Thetan training up to level 5. The estate contains a castle built by Scientologists in a medieval style, which opened in 1989. Hubbard developed security checking during this era and ordered that all check sheets should be forwarded to Saint Hill. In 1968, the Scientologists tried unsuccessfully to have their East Grinstead "chapel" officially recognised as a place of religious worship. Rejected by the Registrar General, they took the case to the Court of Appeal and lost in the case known as R v Registrar General, ex p Segerdal. The judge commented that Scientology was more of a "philosophy of the existence of man or of life, rather than a religion". The definition of religion that was functional in the Segerdal case was that religion "is concerned with man's relation with God, and ethics are concerned with man's relations with man. The two are not the same, and are not made the same by sincere inquiry into the question: 'what is God? Religion was defined as requiring faith in and worship of a God.
Scientologists own several shops in East Grinstead high street and are active in the Chamber of Commerce. They run an annual medieval fayre at the manor. When Religion, Inc., Stewart Lamont's unfavourable book about Scientology, was released in 1986, all the copies available in East Grinstead were bought up by one man.
Scientologists own a number of other properties around the town. One of its communal houses burnt down in 1991 and since then the Church has been prosecuted by the local council over fire safety. The Independent newspaper acquired documents in 1993 suggesting that the Scientologists had deceived council inspectors, pretending one dormitory housed 50 people when in fact there were 130 permanent residents.
During the 1970s, the Church's intelligence operations were directed from Saint Hill by the "Guardian World Wide", Jane Kember, and her deputy Mo Budlong. These included Operation Snow White (a campaign of burglary, infiltration and wiretapping of US Government offices and the Internal Revenue Service) and various "dirty tricks" against opponents. Kember and Budlong were extradited to the United States, where in November 1980 they were sentenced to two to six years in prison.
Foreign entry ban and legal challenges
In a House of Commons of the United Kingdom speech on 25 July 1968, Minister for Health Kenneth Robinson said Scientology's practices were "a potential menace to the personality and well-being of those so deluded as to become its followers." Robinson's investigation was spurred by the publication of a letter of disconnection in the Daily Mail from a British Scientologist, Karen Henslow, to her mother in 1966."Minister is asked to investigate... The case of the processed woman." Daily Mail (London). 22 August 1966. He described Scientology as "so objectionable that it would be right to take all steps... to curb its growth," and so introduced a ban on the immigration of foreign Scientologists.John A. Robilliard. Religion and the Law: Religious Liberty in Modern English Law. Manchester and Dover, NH: Manchester University Press, 1984. 106–9. Until then, the Hubbard College of Scientology had, as a recognised educational institution, been allowed to receive foreign students. Foreign Scientologists already in the country were not allowed to stay. Additionally, work permits to foreign nationals seeking employment in Scientology establishments were restricted.Eileen Barker, "The British Right to Discriminate," Society 21, no. 4 (1984): 35–41. P. 38–9. According to an internal document from 1976, some of the Church's intelligence staff got around the ban by giving false information to immigration officials. Hubbard left the UK permanently in 1969, moving Scientology's world headquarters to a fleet of ships called the Sea Org. The Home Office told him not to return.
Scientologists denounced Kenneth Robinson's remarks as "insane". In retaliation against him, Scientology publications titled "Freedom Scientology", "Freedom and Scientology" and "Freedom" conducted a libel campaign, beginning in 1968. According to these newsletters, he was responsible for creating "death camps" to which innocent people were being kidnapped to be killed or maimed at will. Robinson successfully sued for libel, prompting a total retraction and substantial damages.