Narconon - Scientology drug rehab - quack medicine

The request was partially successful.

William Thackeray

Dear Care Quality Commission,

I write regarding Narconon, a part of the Scientology cult, which provides purported drug and alcohol rehabilitation using quack-medicine 'technology' based on the supposed revelations of L. Ron Hubbard.

These techniques have no reliable evidence to support them; in short, they don't work.

Details of Narconon's UK residential 'rehab' facility are:

http://www.drugrehab.co.uk/
http://www.narconon-news.org/centers/nar...

Narconon Hastings
Caple NeFerne # 2 Albany Rd.
Saint Leonards On sea
East Sussex
TN38OLN

Phone: 011 44142 4420036
Email: [email address]

Please note that Narconon should not be confused with Narcotics Anonymous (sometimes known as 'NarcAnon'), in spite of the misleading similarity in names.

My FOIA query is:

1) Given that Narconon provides residential drug rehab services (or at least, services which purport to be drug rehab), is there a legal requirement for it to be registered with the CQC?

2) Is Narconon registered with the CQC? (I've looked on your online database but they're not there).

3) Have you received any information, enquiries or complaints concerning Narconon? If so, please provide copies of these items as well as copies of your response to the complainant.

4) Has the CQC taken any enforcement action against Narconon? If so, please provide details.

For each of the above queries, I'd like to include information held by the CQC on behalf of its predecessor organisations, where they were involved in the regulation of this sector.

Please send the information to me in electronic format at this email address.

Yours faithfully,

William Thackeray

Information Access, Care Quality Commission

This matter is being dealt with by: Paul Douglas, Telephone No: 0191
2333590

 

Dear Mr Thackeray

 

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your e-mail dated 02 August 2012,
which CQC received the same day.

 

Your request for information is as follows:

 

Ref:  request-124044-6da499fa

 

Re:  Narconon Hastings, Saint Leonards on Sea,  East Sussex TN38OLN

Please note that Narconon should not be confused with Narcotics  Anonymous
(sometimes known as 'NarcAnon'), in spite of the  misleading similarity in
names.

My FOIA query is:

    

1) Given that Narconon provides residential drug rehab services (or at
least, services which purport to be drug rehab), is there a legal
requirement for it to be registered with the CQC?

2) Is Narconon registered with the CQC? (I've looked on your online
database but they're not there).

3) Have you received any information, enquiries or complaints oncerning
Narconon? If so, please provide copies of these items as well as copies of
your response to the complainant.

4) Has the CQC taken any enforcement action against Narconon? If so,
please provide details.

    

For each of the above queries, I'd like to include information held by the
CQC on behalf of its predecessor organisations, where they were involved
in the regulation of this sector.

 

This is now being processed in accordance with the Freedom of Information
Act 2000.

 

We will respond to you as soon as possible, but in any event, within 20
working days following the date we received your request as outlined by
the Act. You can therefore expect a response by close of business 03
September 2012 respectively.

 

We will write to you before this deadline if we are unable to meet it.

 

The information you have requested may be subject to an exemption from the
right to know. Should this occur, you will be notified accordingly when we
write to you next.

 

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact the team, on the
telephone number above, quoting our reference number.
 
Regards
 
On behalf of:
Paul Douglas
Information Access Officer
 
Care Quality Commission
Citygate
Gallowgate
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 4PA
 
Statutory requests for information made under access to information
legislation, such as the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of
Information Act 2000, should be sent to:  [CQC request email]
 

The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential to the
intended recipient. They may not be disclosed to or used by or copied in
any way by anyone other than the intended recipient. If this email is
received in error, please notify us immediately by clicking "Reply" and
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Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender,
except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of the
Care Quality Commission.

William Thackeray

Hi,

Further to my existing FOIA query, I've located a CQC inspection report on Narconon from 2008 (although the facility was not open so no actual inspection was done) which may help you to locate Narconon in your records. The details on the title page of that report are:

CARE HOME ADULTS 18-65

Narconon Adult Drug Free Withdrawal Facility

40 Pevensey Road
St Leonards-on-Sea
East Sussex
TN38 0LS

Lead Inspector

Nigel Thompson

Unannounced Inspection
27th February 2008
1:00

Many thanks.

Yours sincerely,

William Thackeray

Information Access, Care Quality Commission

1 Attachment

3 September 2012

Our Ref: CQC IAT 2012 0738

Dear Mr Thackeray,

 

I write in response to your e-mail dated 2 August 2012 in which you made
a request for information in accordance with the Freedom of Information
Act 2000.

 

A copy of our response to your request is included within the attached zip
file for your information.

 

I would like to apologise for the fact that this response has been issued
a working day late outside the statutory timescale of 20 working days.
When your request was acknowledged and logged in our database, an
incorrect deadline of the 3 September 2012 was calculated.

 

Your request was received on the 2 August therefore you should have
received a response by close of business 31 August 2012. We
acknowledge this is a breach of section 10 the Freedom of Information Act
2000. Please accept my apologies for this unintentional delay and any
inconvenience caused.

 

Kind regards,

 

Paul Douglas
Information Access Officer
Legal Services & Information Rights
Care Quality Commission
Citygate
Gallowgate
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 4PA
Telephone: 0191 233 3590
Internal: 333590
Fax: 01484 772 992
 
Statutory requests for information made under access to information
legislation such as the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 should be sent to: [1][CQC request email]

The contents of this email and any attachments are confidential to the
intended recipient. They may not be disclosed to or used by or copied in
any way by anyone other than the intended recipient. If this email is
received in error, please notify us immediately by clicking "Reply" and
delete the email. Please note that neither the Care Quality Commission nor
the sender
accepts any responsibility for viruses and it is your responsibility to
scan or otherwise check this email and any attachments.

Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender,
except where the sender specifically states them to be the views of the
Care Quality Commission.

References

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Dear Paul,

Thank you for your assistance with this matter. I appreciate your help.

Yours sincerely,

William Thackeray