diff --git a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/internal/SessionFactoryImpl.java b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/internal/SessionFactoryImpl.java
index cc58b8be20..ef691d4f25 100644
--- a/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/internal/SessionFactoryImpl.java
+++ b/hibernate-core/src/main/java/org/hibernate/internal/SessionFactoryImpl.java
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Properties;
 import java.util.Set;
 import java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap;
+
 import javax.naming.Reference;
 import javax.naming.StringRefAddr;
 
@@ -104,6 +105,7 @@ import org.hibernate.engine.profile.Association;
 import org.hibernate.engine.profile.Fetch;
 import org.hibernate.engine.profile.FetchProfile;
 import org.hibernate.engine.query.spi.QueryPlanCache;
+import org.hibernate.engine.query.spi.ReturnMetadata;
 import org.hibernate.engine.spi.CacheImplementor;
 import org.hibernate.engine.spi.FilterDefinition;
 import org.hibernate.engine.spi.Mapping;
@@ -151,7 +153,6 @@ import org.hibernate.tuple.entity.EntityTuplizer;
 import org.hibernate.type.AssociationType;
 import org.hibernate.type.Type;
 import org.hibernate.type.TypeResolver;
-
 import org.jboss.logging.Logger;
 
 
@@ -1195,15 +1196,15 @@ public final class SessionFactoryImpl
 	}
 
 	public Type[] getReturnTypes(String queryString) throws HibernateException {
-		return queryPlanCache.getHQLQueryPlan( queryString, false, Collections.EMPTY_MAP )
-				.getReturnMetadata()
-				.getReturnTypes();
+		final ReturnMetadata metadata = queryPlanCache.getHQLQueryPlan( queryString, false, Collections.EMPTY_MAP )
+				.getReturnMetadata();
+		return metadata == null ? null : metadata.getReturnTypes();
 	}
 
 	public String[] getReturnAliases(String queryString) throws HibernateException {
-		return queryPlanCache.getHQLQueryPlan( queryString, false, Collections.EMPTY_MAP )
-				.getReturnMetadata()
-				.getReturnAliases();
+		final ReturnMetadata metadata = queryPlanCache.getHQLQueryPlan( queryString, false, Collections.EMPTY_MAP )
+				.getReturnMetadata();
+		return metadata == null ? null : metadata.getReturnAliases();
 	}
 
 	public ClassMetadata getClassMetadata(Class persistentClass) throws HibernateException {