In 1995, a review conducted by Geoffrey Chipperfield, working for the Secretary of State of the Environment, recommended abolition of the local government ombudsmen on the grounds that it would not be able to handle the increasing volume of local government complaints effectively. Chipperfield recommended that all stages of a complaint, including external review, should be carried out locally. The government, however, declined to act on the report, stating that they believed that the CLA continued to be necessary, and that though local complaint systems were important, it wasn't necessary to create new statute mandating and maintaining such systems.