The NHS is guilty of widespread failure to comply with race relations law, the health inspectorate warned in a report today.

The Healthcare Commission said only seven of the 570 NHS trusts across England published enough information on their official websites to show they are obeying the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

Its audit of websites showed 31% of trusts displayed none of the required information online, 94% did not make employment monitoring statistics available and 98% did not publish race equality impact assessments.

Inspectors spent 30 minutes on each website looking for the relevant information. If they could not find it within that time, they assumed it was not there.

Jamie Rentoul, the Healthcare Commission's head of strategy, said: "It is not unreasonable to expect legislation to take a little time to bed in, but we were surprised and disappointed by the apparent extent of the problem at this stage. We are putting trusts on notice that they must put their houses in order. If they fail to do so then we, and the Commission for Racial Equality, will have to take action. The duty to promote race equality is not an optional extra."

Nick Johnson, the CRE's director of policy and public sector, added: "This degree of non-compliance shows gross neglect of laws ... to protect all members of our communities."

The Healthcare Commission did not collect evidence of discrimination against individuals and its survey did not take account of trusts that distributed hard copies of race relations material without making it available online.

But Surinder Sharma, the Department of Health's equality tsar, said the survey raised serious concerns. "I am personally looking to every NHS trust to give immediate attention to remedying this situation ... Race equality remains a core element of our drive to improve access to healthcare, combat health inequalities and develop a diverse workforce," he said.