Doctors should be allowed to prescribe medicinal cannabis to patients in the UK, the official body which advises the Government on drugs has said.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) said there is "evidence of medicinal benefit of some of these products in certain circumstances" and recommended they should be able to be prescribed as long as they meet appropriate safety standards.

It advised Sajid Javid that cannabis-derived medicinal products should be placed in Schedule 2 of the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001, following a commission from the Home Office to review the scheduling of cannabis-derived medicinal products.

The ACMD has now tasked the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) with producing a definition for these products, in order to allow them to be moved out of Schedule 1.

The Home Secretary said he would decide whether to move medicinal cannabis off Schedule 1 "shortly".

The move was welcomed by the co-chairman of the recently established cross-party parliamentary group on medical cannabis under prescription, Sir Mike Penning, and Professor Mike Barnes, who helped Alfie Dingley, six, from Warwickshire, become the first person in the UK to receive a licence to be treated with medicinal cannabis.