diff --git a/sql/item_subselect.cc b/sql/item_subselect.cc
index 43af0b5a3f6..21c897da2be 100644
--- a/sql/item_subselect.cc
+++ b/sql/item_subselect.cc
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* Copyright (c) 2002, 2015, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+/* Copyright (c) 2002, 2016, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
 
    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
@@ -1789,8 +1789,12 @@ bool subselect_union_engine::is_executed() const
 
 bool subselect_union_engine::no_rows()
 {
+  bool rows_present= false;
+
   /* Check if we got any rows when reading UNION result from temp. table: */
-  return test(!unit->fake_select_lex->join->send_records);
+  if (unit->fake_select_lex->join)
+    rows_present= test(!unit->fake_select_lex->join->send_records);
+  return rows_present;
 }
 
 void subselect_uniquesubquery_engine::cleanup()