Integral to Scientology’s recent legal victories in the United Kingdom is solicitor Peter Hodkin. A lifelong Scientologist, his law firm Hodkin & Company have represented the Church of Scientology for decades.
Hodkin plays a vital role in Scientology’s campaign for religious recognition, acting as the driving force behind its legal battles for tax exemption. In 2013, a Supreme Court ruling redefined ‘religion’ in British law – and Hodkin was the man who made it happen.
When his daughter, Louisa Hodkin, agreed to marry fellow Scientologist Ale Calcioli, they were staff members at London Org. They commuted daily from their home in East Grinstead to work for the Church for less than minimum wage, classed as ‘religious volunteers’. However, fair pay was not the battle they had chosen to fight. Instead, they wanted to overturn an 1855 statute that required religions evidence a belief in a supreme being in order to conduct religious marriage ceremonies.
TV appearance
The ruling allowed Louisa and Ale to marry at the first Scientology wedding in England & Wales the following year, and started a chain of events that would lead to Scientology gaining partial tax exemption in January 2023.
The ruling was widely publicised, thanks to Scientology’s $multi-million PR machine and Hodkin even made a brief appearance on the ‘This Morning’ sofa alongside Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford in 2014.
Relationship with David Miscavige
In a video on David Miscavige’s website, Hodkin dotes over Scientology’s current leader. Describing a time when Miscavige noticed somebody trying to leave a meeting early as “very impressive” and an example of his “greater level of awareness”, Hodkin states “his level of control is very clear to see”. I’m not sure if that quite comes across in the way it was intended, Peter.
In 2015, Hodkin was awarded a ‘Religious Freedom Award’ in an annual ceremony held by the National Church of Scientology of Spain. He couldn’t attend the event in person, so instead he filmed a short statement about his role in the landmark Supreme Court case.
More recently, Hodkin achieved another victory for Scientology in a specialist valuations tribunal which resulted in Church property being ruled as places of “public worship” and thus entitling them to partial tax exemption, despite being denied charity status in 1999.
Born in February 1963, Hodkin currently holds appointments at a number of Scientology-related businesses including being a Director of Greenfields Educational Trust, a Scientology school in East Grinstead. Although not on the board of directors, he is also listed on the ACNC website as the point of contact for COSRECI, the Australian-registered entity through which Scientology operates in the UK.
According to his law firm’s website, he currently charges £345 ($437) per hour for his services, which is more than a Sea Org member would earn from 8 weeks of full time work (12-16 hours a day, 7 days a week) in Scientology.
