diff --git a/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/MiscFeature.pm b/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/MiscFeature.pm
index 270f28a9beb090e05f95598b3ff1162a2be5930b..4e1cfeb0e1bcc38e50f2d7d8b46ff7e93d77b848 100644
--- a/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/MiscFeature.pm
+++ b/modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/MiscFeature.pm
@@ -221,6 +221,12 @@ sub get_all_Attributes {
   }
 }
 
+sub get_scalar_attribute {
+  my $self = shift;
+  my $code = shift;
+  my @results = grep { uc( $_->code() ) eq uc( $code )} @{$self->{'attributes'}};
+  return @results ? $results[0]->value() : '';
+}
 
 =head2 display_id