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-l ...

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 governme ...

and Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980http://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/docserver/fulltext/abvitbe.27886.bm03.pdf?expires=1336578967&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=DEA607E99EA177B15387231E04BCBBDA, ICE 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 Best Value was government policy in the United Kingdom affecting the provision of public services in England and Wales. In Wales, Best Value is known as the Wales Programme for Improvement. A statutory duty of Best Value applies in Scotland.Audi ...

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 ...

were encouraged in the early 1980s,SocietyGuardian

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

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 , mottoeng = Let us follow the Light , established = 1870 (Portsmouth and Gosport School of Science and Art) , type = Public , budget = £282.5 million (2020/21) , chancellor ...

, CIPFA

References

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