Praise extremely punctual inspection (7)
I believe the answer is:
plaudit
'praise' is the definition.
(I know that praise can be written as plaudit)
'extremely punctual inspection' is the wordplay.
'extremely' suggests removing the centre (only the extremes of the word are used).
'inspection' becomes 'audit' (I've seen this before).
'punctual' with its centre taken out is 'pl'.
'pl'+'audit'='PLAUDIT'
(Other definitions for plaudit that I've seen before include "Praise, encomium" , "Acclaim" , "Round of applause" , "Praise, accolade" , "Enthusiastic approval" .)