Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of meditation techniques in prisoners' (a) mental health and (b) other health care.

In March 2017, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published a guideline on mental health of adults in contact with the criminal justice system (NG66). Meditation for promoting mental health and wellbeing was considered during the development of the guideline. However, the guideline committee considered the evidence insufficient to support any specific recommendations on meditation.

NICE also published a guideline on physical health of people in prison (NG57) in November 2016, which made recommendations on the promotion of prisoners’ health and wellbeing. Meditation was not considered during the development of this guideline.