Britain’s anti-discrimination quango had to be bailed out by ministers to avoid its breaching the law over its own internal equality scheme, The Times has learnt.

The disclosure comes as the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), chaired by Trevor Phillips, last week began its first inquiry into human rights in Britain.

The commission was set up last year to replace the Commission for Racial Equality, the Disability Rights Commission and the Equal Opportunities Commission.

Along with all other public bodies it was meant to implement an overarching equality scheme, setting out its position for its staff on race, gender, disability and other potential areas of discrimination by January 1 this year. It failed to do so, prompting ministers to lay a statutory instrument before Parliament, extending the deadline to April 1 this year.

Last night opposition MPs expressed astonishment at the failure. Lynne Featherstone, the Liberal Democrat spokesman for youth and equality, said: “What authority will the commission have in cracking the whip to other public bodies when they fail to comply with their own legal responsibilities with such impunity from ministers?”

According to its mandate, part of“ the commission’s responsibility is to “reduce inequality, eliminate discrimination, strengthen good relations between people and protect human rights”. It must also assess compliance with the statutory duties applicable to public authorities as well as take “enforcement action when necessary and appropriate”.

The commission maintains that its scheme was very ambitious and that the three-month period that it had to meet the deadline set by the Government’s Equality Office was unrealistic.

A spokeswoman for the commission confirmed that the deadline had been revised but said this was necessary because of the size of the job. “We take this task very seriously. We are attempting something much more ambitious than merely complying with the duty to set up equality schemes . . . we want a single integrated scheme, which obviously takes time to do properly.”

Times Recommends

• The playboy and the Tory party leader
• Bin Laden's family tree is impenetrable jungle
• Paul McCartney