The centuries-old tradition of printing new laws on vellum is to be abandoned after MPs bowed to pressure from peers and agreed to use paper.

The House of Lords – which is in charge of printing copies of laws - has been pushing to use archival paper, rather than calf skin, to save £80,000 a year.

Last year, MPs voted in the House of Commons to reject the suggestion, after Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock offered to step in to pay the extra cost.

The motion – which was non-binding - notified peers that the Commons “withheld its consent to the use of archival paper rather than vellum for the printing of record copies of public Acts of Parliament”.

However MPs have now backed down and agreed a compromise that the covers of Bills should be on vellum, but the inside pages on paper.

Laws have been printed on vellum parchment since the early 16th century.