diff --git a/Vates/VatesSimpleGui/ViewWidgets/src/ViewBase.cpp b/Vates/VatesSimpleGui/ViewWidgets/src/ViewBase.cpp
index e970106b37eb0bd1e67323a66d885ef945cad6b8..3511cb790281379e4cb7df817b7641d3a4140862 100644
--- a/Vates/VatesSimpleGui/ViewWidgets/src/ViewBase.cpp
+++ b/Vates/VatesSimpleGui/ViewWidgets/src/ViewBase.cpp
@@ -482,6 +482,9 @@ void ViewBase::onResetCenterToPoint(double x, double y, double z) {
  */
 void ViewBase::onParallelProjection(bool state) {
   pqRenderView *cview = this->getPvActiveView();
+  if (cview == nullptr) {
+    return;
+  }
   vtkSMProxy *proxy = cview->getProxy();
   vtkSMPropertyHelper(proxy, "CameraParallelProjection").Set(state);
   proxy->UpdateVTKObjects();
diff --git a/docs/source/release/v3.9.0/ui.rst b/docs/source/release/v3.9.0/ui.rst
index 9d4c7dad1a758496bdb21c81d68b97bdb4f557a1..08486aa02fc95eb790fa057aeb88a3b67118ee1b 100644
--- a/docs/source/release/v3.9.0/ui.rst
+++ b/docs/source/release/v3.9.0/ui.rst
@@ -114,6 +114,7 @@ Bugs Resolved
 - Fixed a bug where the threshold filter in the VSI SplatterPlot view only returned an empty dataset.
 - Fixed a bug where plotting a column of TableWorkspace in the GUI did not work if decimal separator was not a dot.
 - Fixed a bug where closing a second plot window would cause a newly activated window to be resized.
+- Fixed a bug where pressing the pick mode button in the SplatterPlotView of the VSI caused Mantid to crash.
 
 Full list of
 `GUI <http://github.com/mantidproject/mantid/pulls?q=is%3Apr+milestone%3A%22Release+3.9%22+is%3Amerged+label%3A%22Component%3A+GUI%22>`_