The chief spokesperson for the Church of Scientology in the United Kingdom lashed out after an East Grinstead Town Councillor forwarded an internal memo raising concerns about their operations, Scientology Business can reveal.
Following a string of concerns raised by members of the public over East Grinstead Town Council’s close relationship with Scientology, which has its UK headquarters in the town, Councillors received a briefing sheet from the Clerk detailing the policies that shape how the controversial church engages with the local community. The note explained a brief history of Scientology’s presence in Sussex and the work of it’s PR department, known as the Office of Special Affairs (OSA). In particular it highlighted a practice known as Safe Pointing, where Scientology officials are instructed to build relationships with local officials.
In 2024, an investigation by the Daily Mail revealed a number of former Mayors had received gifts and hospitality from Scientology, including invitations to walk the red carpet at a Mission Impossible premiere and take photos with Tom Cruise. Since then, despite the public backlash sitting Mayors and Councillors from both East Grinstead Town and Mid-Sussex District Councils have repeatedly attended events at Saint Hill in an official capacity, turning on their Christmas Lights and opening festivities at their annual Easter Egg Hunt.
In order to calm tensions between local residents, ex-Scientologists and the Council the Town Clerk asked for further information about safe pointing and offered to distribute it to elected officials, writing on 9th March 2026 “If you would like to share your information regarding ‘Safe Pointing,’ I would be happy to circulate it to all Councillors. This would be the most appropriate way to ensure your concerns are received by those in a position to review them.”
A briefing sheet was subsequently shared with the Clerk, who sent it to Councillors on 21st April.
In response to repeated requests to meet with both the current and previous Mayors to present concerns, I suggested [redacted] prepared a document containing [redacted] ‘Safe Pointing’ concerns so it could be shared equally with all councillors for review.
I appreciate that views may differ on both the content and the decision to share it; the intention is simply to ensure openness and to respond appropriately to the request made, rather than to prompt discussion or to necessarily require any further action.
If anyone wishes to seek further clarification or request additional written detail, please feel free to contact me directly.
I will confirm to the author that this information has been shared with all Councillors and, unless I hear otherwise, will assume that this satisfies the request for circulation.
Email from the East Grinstead Town Clerk to Councillors, 21st April 2026
The email included an attached briefing sheet, which we can share with you here for the first time.
However despite the memo being shared internally and not meant for publication or sharing outside of the Council, records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show an East Grinstead Town Councillor subsequently shared the briefing sheet with a Scientology official.
The documents have been redacted so at this stage, it is unclear which Councillor forwarded the note to the Church.
In response, Scientology’s PR spokesperson Graeme Wilson lashed out, sending an email to the Council the following day in an attempt to debunk the facts shared in the briefing note.
Dear Cllr [redacted]
I am writing to you as the Public Affairs Director of the Church of Scientology.
It has come to my attention that you have recently been sent a document entitled “Fact Sheet for Councillors Scientology safe pointing,” by a [redacted] called [redacted]. Given the content of this “Fact Sheet” I felt it necessary to correct the mischaracterisation contained in this. As is commonly understood, [redacted] is an [redacted], with a publicly professed agenda to destroy [redacted], while [redacted] seeks to obtain notoriety and income in the process. In doing so [redacted] frequently resorts to outright lies, misinformation and disinformation — and this so-called “fact sheet” is another good example of this.
Forgive me if this is quite a long email, but I feel it needs to be in order to properly address the above-referenced ‘fact sheet.’
As you may be aware the Scientology religion was founded by Mr L. Ron Hubbard more than 70 years ago. Since 1959, when Mr Hubbard first purchased Saint Hill Manor, there has been a Scientology Church in East Grinstead, and Scientologists have been very active in the town community, and in supporting local causes and charities, since that time. Scientology was formally acknowledged as a religion by the United Kingdom Supreme Court in 2013, and the Supreme Court also found that the earlier treatment of Scientologists was “illogical, discriminatory and unjust.”
Prior to that time Scientologists had been subjected to considerable officially sanctioned discrimination and harassment, which was, again, largely the result of misinformation and disinformation being spread about it. There was even for a time — from 1968 to 1980 — a ban on Scientologists coming to the United Kingdom to visit a Scientology Church. It later materialised that there was never any evidence to justify this ban, despite the highly inflammatory rhetoric used when it was introduced by the then Health Minister, who civil servants of the time noted had a great prejudice towards the Church. Despite all efforts to incommode and disadvantage followers of this religion in the past, most of this has thankfully now been reversed. The only reason that our religion survived this onslaught is that Scientologists are good people, with good intentions, who genuinely do good things to help others — because this is like, most religions, the intrinsic ethos of our religion.
It may be noted that the aims of the Scientology religion, first announced in 1950, are the achievement of “a civilisation without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where Man is free to rise to greater heights.” Accordingly, any time there is a reference to the aims of Scientology, these are what is being referred to. Scientology exists solely to help people to help others — which is the entire focus of its activities both inside and outside of the Church. It also works together with anyone who is of good will and who shares in a desire to create a better society.
The Church of Scientology in England is part of an Australian registered charity – its Australian foundation entirely due to the historic discrimination that Scientologists suffered in this country, now thankfully ended.
Turning to [redacted].
Firstly, the United Kingdom headquarters of the Church are not located at Saint Hill Manor. Like much of [redacted] litany of false and misleading information, this is an incorrect assertion.
Secondly, the policies upon which the Church operates are determined by the Church Boards, and change with the times. Policies that Mr Hubbard authored were written for the time and circumstances in which they written, and should be viewed in that context. They were routinely revised and updated by Mr Hubbard himself during his life time. They often delineate how fundamental Scientology principles can be applied in the running of an organisation and are therefore an invaluable reference and guide. But like in any organisation, the operating procedures in the Church evolve to meet the needs and requirements of the present day.
The Sea Organisation is a recognised religious order in this country. It has that name because it was founded by Mr Hubbard when he was based on a ship in the late 1960s. Like the religious orders of any religion, it consists of the most dedicated members, who commit themselves entirely to the service of the Church. They serve out of religious commitment not financial reward, live communally, with their basic needs provided by the Church, together with a small allowance to cover personal necessities. They are no different to other religious orders in these respects. Most Scientology Churches are staffed by volunteers who are not members of the religious order, but the most important Churches are run by members of the order, including the one in East Grinstead.
The Office of Special Affairs is a small office within the Church, responsible for legal matters and external affairs.
In the late 1960s, through to the early 1980s, there existed a body in the Church known as the Guardian’s Office. It was established specifically to stand up to the intense persecution that Scientologists were suffering around the world at that time. Its staff were not members of the religious order, and the job that they were tasked with was unbelievably difficult. In addition to the situation in the United Kingdom and other countries, Scientologists were then also being persecuted in the USA by some government agencies, who passed false information about them both inside of the USA and outside. “Snow White” refers to a programme in the 1970s to legally discover false reports in such files and get them corrected. There are several Court decisions confirming the legal validity of the programme. In violation of what the programme mandated a small number of people violated the law in the USA and were rightly punished. Subsequently the office responsible was disbanded completely. With the advent of Freedom of Information laws, the purpose of the Snow White programme was subsequently achieved. Later, culminating in 1993, the USA Internal Revenue Service concluded the largest investigation in IRS history into all Scientology churches, as well as Church leaders personally. The IRS found everything was fully in order and in compliance with the law, with nothing wrong with any of them, and declared all Scientology churches to be tax exempt, nonprofit public benefit bodies.
There are no restrictions whatsoever on Scientologists establishing any kind of relationships with elected officials. Scientologists come from all walks of life and have political opinions covering the entire spectrum. They are free to do whatever they like, and some have been elected to office in this country and this town. Because Scientologists are engaged with so many activities in the community, many are known to elected officials.
Moreover, the Church of Scientology encourages all Scientologists to engage in good works and help people — because the aim of Scientology is to engage in good works and help people.
In regard to Mr Hubbard’s policy on having a “safe point,” this was formulated in 1972 as a response to the extraordinary persecution Scientologists were suffering and the difficulties this created for the Church to operate at all. Mr Hubbard’s viewpoint was that if important people in the area of our Churches really got to know us, they would be suitably informed when someone tried to subject us to persecution of one form or another, and could come to their own conclusions. The policy was very sensible in the circumstances. Like almost all such policies written by Mr Hubbard it is free to be read by anyone, as they were published in volumes which can be obtained by anyone.
In truth, long before the above policy was issued, the first policy of our Church, since the early 1950s, was, “maintain friendly relations with the environment and the public.”
I am happy to show you and discuss any and all such policies written by Mr Hubbard, should you have any questions. As I said above, they sometimes need to be considered in the context of when they were written, and what we were having to contend with at the time. This is coupled with the fact that the goals of Scientology are altruistic and good — there are no “secret” other goals — a fact that I can personally attest to, having been working to help people as part of the Church for nearly 50 years.
[Redacted] proceeds to then totally misrepresent the report of Sir John Foster QC published in 1971. Sir John was commissioned by the Government to conduct an independent enquiry into Scientology — after they had already imposed the ban on foreign Scientologists coming to this country in 1968. The reason it was commissioned was that they knew that they did not have evidence to support the ban or the false assertion that Scientology “was socially harmful” — but they hoped that an after-the-event inquiry might unearth it. It did not, and the Foster report recommended that the ban be lifted. The statement that [redacted] quotes is the, since disproven, statement of the Minister announcing the ban in 1968. Sir John Foster reached no such conclusion in his report, and said the ban was not justified.
[Redacted] also refers to the Charity Commission decision in 1999. What [redacted] fails to mention is that that decision was itself based on a decades old decision where a judge had suggested that Scientology may not be a religion, and which concluded that the obvious public benefits which flow from religious practices were therefore not applicable. Charity law in this area has been revised since that time, and the Church unequivocally provides nearly all of the public benefits which the Charity Commission have subsequently identified as flowing from religious practices. The UK Supreme Court has now ruled that Scientology is a religion, and the body that operates the Churches in England is registered as a charity in Australia (where it is incorporated).
I hope that that answers any questions that you might have on the so-called “fact sheet.” Its purpose is evidently to try to create divisions and sow the seeds of intolerance towards a peaceful, law abiding and decent religious community. There is unfortunately just too much of this about at present.
If you would like more information, I am happy to meet you, and you have an open invitation to come and tour our Church in East Grinstead. Please let me know.
Kind regards,
Graeme Wilson
Email sent by Scientology to East Grinstead Town Council, 22nd April 2026
Public Affairs Director
Church of Scientology
East Grinstead Town Council has opened an internal review following the incident, and it is unclear whether the Councillor in question will face any disciplinary action as a result of the breach in confidence.
You can read the entire email exchange, as obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request below:
Wow Alex! That was a great article. You have always known that someone on the council is collaborating with Sci. Too bad you can't find out who it is. I just wish they would wake the F up! You are sure getting under their skin. You take care and I wish you a speedy recovery.
Val-SoCal :0)