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The Government is to review the controversial decision which made possession of cannabis a largely non-arrestable offence, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced.

He told MPs that Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will consider moving the drug from class C back to class B.

Cannabis was a class B drug until it was downgraded in January 2004 by former home secretary David Blunkett, placing it alongside certain prescription tranquillisers and body-building steroids.

A Home Office spokesman said the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) will be asked to review reports that danger from cannabis is increasing due to wider availability of stronger strains such as "skunk".

There are fears that more potent forms of cannabis have harsher side-effects, particularly on mental health.

The Home Office's own drugs advice website, Frank, admits that there is a recent trend towards stronger varieties of the drug.

It will be the second time the ACMD has reviewed the cannabis downgrading decision.

Former home secretary Charles Clarke commissioned a review, but in January 2005 announced that cannabis would remain class C.

The Home Office spokesman said on Wednesday: "We will be asking the ACMD to review the classification of cannabis, given the increase in strength of some cannabis strains and their potential harms.

"It would be wrong to prejudge that review which shows how seriously we take our priority of reducing drug-related harm."