The Isle of Man's discrimination laws will be bolstered by new legislation, but its introduction is not imminent. The Disability Discrimination Act 2006 of Tynwald ("the DDA") has not yet been enlivened in the Isle of Man but there will be a review of the steps to be taken later this year. Further equality legislation is then likely to follow.

During questions in the House of Keys, Social Care Minister Chris Robertshaw MHK indicated that the Isle of Man would take a phased approach to the DDA which received royal assent in 2006 but is yet to be fully implemented. The Isle of Man Government has stated that work is continuing to be carried out for the phased approach to continue and that a timetable detailing the next steps should be published by the end of this year. A multi-agency forum has been established working towards a shared view of measures that could be viewed as reasonable adjustments.

The DDA will set minimum levels of disabled access to buildings and outlaw discrimination against disabled people in the supply of goods and services. Eventually a single piece of discrimination law is likely to be in place in the Isle of Man as an Equality Bill is currently being prepared to deal with all types of discrimination in all areas. However there is further labour law in the pipeline ahead of the Equality Bill, namely the Control of Employment Bill and various amendments to the Employment Act 2006.

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