The UK’s Prince Charles has said that yoga contributes to “health and healing” and can help “conserve precious and expensive health resources”.

The comments were made in a written statement to the 2019 Yoga in Healthcare Conference – held for the first time this month at London’s University of Westminster.

The Prince of Wales said: “For thousands of years, millions of people have experienced yoga's ability to improve their lives.

“The development of therapeutic, evidence-based yoga is, I believe, an excellent example of how yoga can contribute to health and healing.

"This not only benefits the individual, but also conserves precious and expensive health resources for others where and when they are most needed."

Prince Charles has long been an advocate of complementary medicine and therapies, and his charitable foundation recently announced a plan to fund yoga and meditation for prisoners in an effort to “improve young offenders’ wellbeing and restore hope and positivity towards the future, with a view to reducing the likelihood of reoffending”.

At the event, Duncan Selbie, chief executive of Public Health England, said that some of the additional funding from the NHS Long Term Plan – which outlines how the NHS will improve care in the UK over the next decade – would be spent on yoga classes.

The NHS Long Term Plan, announced last month, includes increased funds for social prescribing, wherein health professionals can prescribe non-medical activities.