diff --git a/spinn_front_end_common/utilities/notification_protocol/notification_protocol.py b/spinn_front_end_common/utilities/notification_protocol/notification_protocol.py
index 93d77e0cc1..3f676660f6 100644
--- a/spinn_front_end_common/utilities/notification_protocol/notification_protocol.py
+++ b/spinn_front_end_common/utilities/notification_protocol/notification_protocol.py
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@
 from typing import List, Optional
 from concurrent.futures import Future
 from concurrent.futures import ThreadPoolExecutor, wait
-from spinn_utilities.config_holder import get_config_bool, get_config_int
+from spinn_utilities.config_holder import (
+    get_config_bool, get_config_int_or_none)
 from spinn_utilities.log import FormatAdapter
 from spinnman.connections.udp_packet_connections import EIEIOConnection
 from spinnman.messages.eieio.command_messages import (
@@ -54,7 +55,7 @@ def __init__(self) -> None:
         # has been read before starting the simulation
         self.__wait_for_read_confirmation = get_config_bool(
             "Database", "wait_on_confirmation")
-        self.__wait_for_read_timeout = get_config_int(
+        self.__wait_for_read_timeout = get_config_int_or_none(
             "Database", "wait_on_confirmation_timeout")
         self.__wait_pool: Optional[ThreadPoolExecutor] = \
             ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=1)