A direct service organisation or direct labour organisation (DSO or DLO) is a business unit of a United Kingdom

local authority Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

housing association In Ireland and the United Kingdom, housing associations are private, non-profit making organisations that provide low-cost " social housing" for people in need of a home. Any budget surplus is used to maintain existing housing and to help fi ...

which undertakes work specified by the

Local Government Act 1988 The United Kingdom Local Government Act 1988 is an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament. It was famous for its controversial section 28. This section prohibited local authorities from promoting, in a specified category of schools, "the teachin ...

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/localgovernment/pdf/1194710.pdf Glossary of terms and acronyms,

Department for Communities and Local Government The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), formerly the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for housing, communities, local government ...

and

Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 The Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 (1980 c.65) was responsible for the establishment of development corporations, including the London Docklands Development Corporation. It also created the Public Request to Order Disposal, which c ...

http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/docserver/fulltext/abvitbe.27886.bm03.pdf?expires=1336578967&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=DEA607E99EA177B15387231E04BCBBDA,

ICE Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...

and/or other work, including construction and maintenance.Data Sources and Definitions: Public Sector Employment - Background Notes
Scottish Government Its workers are directly employed by the authority.

Formation

Compulsory competitive tendering and

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a r ...

were encouraged in the early 1980s,SocietyGuardian

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

leading to the formal establishment of the DSO (and its forerunner, the DLO).http://www.cipfa.org.uk/thejournal/download/jour_vol5_no2_c.pdf Cost Saving Through Competitive Tendering: The Case of Refuse Collection Revisited, Tonge, Richard & Willett, Caroline,

University of Portsmouth The University of Portsmouth is a public university in Portsmouth, England. It is one of only four universities in the South East England, South East of England rated as Gold in the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework. With approximately 28 ...

CIPFA The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) is a professional institute for accountants working in the public services, national audit agencies, in major accountancy firms, and in other bodies where public money needs to be m ...

References

Local government in the United Kingdom Construction industry of the United Kingdom {{Business-term-stub