The environment secretary, Michael Gove, has been labelled the “minister for consultations” after it emerged his department had launched 76 since he took office but had only passed one piece of primary legislation.

The findings show Gove has launched consultations at a rate of nearly four a month since he took office, covering topics from a deposit return scheme for plastic bottles to animal welfare.

The only piece of primary legislation passed has been the Ivory Act, and critics say half of the consultations have failed to produce any action at all.

The shadow environment secretary, Sue Hayman, who carried out the analysis, said the findings raised serious questions about Gove’s ability to force through his policies in a government “tearing itself apart over Brexit”.

“Michael Gove has become the secretary of state for consultations,” she said. “After 20 months in post he’s brought forward 76 consultations compared to only one piece of primary legislation and repeatedly kicked key pledges on animal welfare and recycling into the long grass.”

Hayman said the public wanted to see real government action on the environment, “not endless consultations from a secretary of state who grandstands on green issues but can’t get things done.”

The environment secretary, Michael Gove. Photograph: Will Oliver/EPA

The government hit back, saying Labour’s criticism betrayed a fundamental lack of understanding of how government worked. “This is risible,” said a Conservative spokesman. “Government has legal obligations to consult. If you don’t, the actions you take are subject to judicial review.

“Would Labour rather we didn’t consult and therefore see our ivory ban, deposit return scheme and single use plastic bans overturned in the courts? This lack of understanding of the basic processes of government shows Labour is unfit for office.”

He said that under Gove the government had implemented “a microbeads ban, made CCTV mandatory in slaughterhouses, passed one of the world’s toughest ivory laws, launched the first ever 25-year environment plan and we are taking the first agriculture, fisheries and environment bills in decades through parliament.”

Green groups, however, have criticised Gove and the government for failing to take the urgent action required in the face of escalating climate emergencies from global heating to plastic pollution. The government’s 25-year environment plan was widely criticised last year over a lack of proposed legislation and the lengthy timescales for concrete action.

Hayman’s analysis also found:

The government has yet to respond to 16 closed consultations, one of which ended 11 months ago

Nine consultations received government responses that did not pledge any action at all

Nine consultations received government responses pledging action that has not been delivered, including on pet welfare and recycling

Labour says Gove’s predecessor in the role, Andrea Leadsom, launched 16 consultations in 11 months, meaning that after 20 months in post, Gove has brought forward nearly five times as many.

Thirty-two organisations across all sectors wrote to Gove last month asking him as a matter of “great urgency” to halt consultations on all food, farming and environment issues because Brexit preparations were choking their capacity to respond.

“We very strongly urge you therefore to require of your cabinet colleagues that a range of current and planned consultations that will impact food and drink, some of which are expected shortly, are firmly and clearly placed on ‘pause’ until this uncertainty is over.”