A third of policies unveiled over the past decade were expected to have a negative impact on equalities, according to research seen exclusively by the Mirror.
Equality Impact Assessments are carried out to to ensure a particular policy, project or scheme does not unlawfully discriminate against any protected characteristic, such as gay people, ethnic minorities or the disabled.
Think tank Compassion in Politics analysed 175 EIAs published from 2010 to 2021.
Its 48-page report found that 21% anticipated a negative impact on ethnicity, 22% on gender, 22% on age, 25% on disability and 4% on sexuality.
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Some 34% of all assessments it studied warned that at least one protected characteristic would be negatively affected by a policy.
The report also found that assessments were published an average of 197 days after a policy was announced or first introduced into Parliament.
Critics claim this leaves very little time for assessments to be used in debates about proposed policies or help shape their progress.
Compassion in Politics co-director Matt Hawkins said: “This report lays bare how successive governments have overlooked, underused, and poorly deployed Equality Impact Assessments. “Used properly, EIAs provide an effective mechanism for ensuring that government policies do not increase inequality and, at best, actually work to improve outcomes for those who have historically been under-represented and poorly served.
“To achieve that goal requires a significant culture change within government.”
Amnesty International UK’s head of advocacy Allan Hogarth said: “This research raises serious questions about the Government’s commitment to challenging inequalities.”
Labour ’s Debbie Abrahams, a former Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Compassionate Politics, believed assessments could help tackle poverty.
“Used properly they can guide decision-making towards fairer and more just outcomes,” said the MP.
“That is why it is, on the one hand, so devastating to see how EIAs have been so poorly used and, on the other, inspiring to consider how they could help us unravel the systemic unfairness of modern Britain.”
Defending itself against possible claims that assessments were cherry-picked to deliver a particular outcome for its report, the think tank said it “did not exclude any EIAs for any deliberate reason”.
It added: “Any that were missed - and we expect there to be very few - would have been overlooked simply because they do not appear in our search on the Government database.”
A Government spokeswoman claimed: “This analysis is outdated.
“This Government is levelling-up all parts of our country, working to tackle inequality and promoting equality of opportunity so everyone can thrive.
“We recently set out our Inclusive Britain strategy which includes 70 practical actions we are taking to tackle disparities, boost opportunity and promote fairness.
“These new measures include policing reforms, targeted support for children at risk, a new Model History Curriculum, and action on the ethnicity pay gap.
“They are the latest major step in the Government’s levelling-up agenda.”
