diff --git a/Code/Mantid/Framework/Kernel/src/ComputeResourceInfo.cpp b/Code/Mantid/Framework/Kernel/src/ComputeResourceInfo.cpp
index 6669c1f22831..e7b36265aaa1 100644
--- a/Code/Mantid/Framework/Kernel/src/ComputeResourceInfo.cpp
+++ b/Code/Mantid/Framework/Kernel/src/ComputeResourceInfo.cpp
@@ -47,7 +47,8 @@ ComputeResourceInfo::ComputeResourceInfo(const FacilityInfo *fac,
 
   const std::string baseTag = "baseURL";
   Poco::AutoPtr<Poco::XML::NodeList> nl = elem->getElementsByTagName(baseTag);
-  if (!nl || nl->length() != 1 || !nl->item(0) || !nl->item(0)->childNodes()) {
+  if (!nl || nl->length() != 1 || !nl->item(0) ||
+      !nl->item(0)->hasChildNodes()) {
     g_log.error("Failed to get base URL for remote compute resource '" +
                 m_name + "'");
     throw std::runtime_error("Remote compute resources must have exactly one "