East Grinstead’s Queen Victoria Hospital, which is renowned for its reconstructive surgery and burns care, accepted a £50,000 donation from the Church of Scientology in October 2017 despite criticism from local opinion leaders.

Featured in this BBC News article by John Sweeney, the hospital claimed the donation was “considered in the context of all relevant guidelines”, despite former Liberal Democrat Health spokesman Norman Lamb MP describing it as “completely inappropriate for an NHS trust to accept funds from this organisation.”

The donation was made as part of Scientology’s policy of ‘safe pointing’ local authorities in an attempt to build a better PR image. A 1982 policy letter written by Church founder L. Ron Hubbard states “The most important action to undertake when going about making a safe point is to carefully and painstakingly find out who exactly are the top dogs in the area in financial and political circles, and their associates and connections, and to what each one is hostile.”

The policy dictates how Scientologists should act as a precursor to a wider campaign of political infiltration, with Hubbard going on to state “Without a safe point established as above, it is a waste of time to rush into dealings with a government or to promise them anything.”

This is not the first time Scientology have been called out for inappropriate relations with local authorities. It was revealed the City of London Police had been showered with gifts by the Scientologists, including tickets to Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible movie premiere ahead of the opening of its London Org building on Queen Victoria Street in 2006.