Thank you, Mr. Chair.
We essentially recommended in paragraph 2.37 that they review when the optimal timing is rather than specifically saying that there was perhaps a better time.
One of the other points we make in the report later on is that the validity of this clearance check had been extended, so it's not necessarily the case that it was done at the beginning and then not done again. In recent years, until some of the changes were made, citizenship applications were taking a very long time, so in fact they would have to do this clearance check multiple times because the validity of it would expire.
Then the department increased the length of that validity from 12 months to 18 months, but as far as we could tell, there was no analysis to explain whether that was a better way of doing it.
What we want them to do is go back and look at when they do this and have a proper basis and justification for that timing.