Under Part I of the Local Government Act 1988 (Competition), work falling within certain defined activities may only be carried out by local authorities if particular conditions are fulfilled.

This Order, which applies in England and Wales, exempts from the requirements of Part I in any financial year building cleaning and ground maintenance work (as defined in paragraphs 2 and 6 of Schedule 1 to the 1988 Act) so long as the work is carried out by a local education authority at a school with a delegated budget (under Chapter III of Part I of the Education Reform Act 1988) and so long as the authority have estimated that no more than the equivalent of three full-time employees will be required to carry out the work in that year. Article 4 makes transitional provision for work carried out in 1992/3.

A full-time employee is defined as one whose average weekly working hours (including overtime) do not exceed the standard working week specified for the time being by the National Joint Council for Local Authorities' Services (Manual Workers). This is currently 39 hours.