diff --git a/uk/ac/sanger/artemis/components/variant/AbstractVCFReader.java b/uk/ac/sanger/artemis/components/variant/AbstractVCFReader.java
index dec5fa857ba5cc33a73b813d6487a113b9f6cc10..8692e021d013fb4482d79b682eb11b9196cb98a6 100644
--- a/uk/ac/sanger/artemis/components/variant/AbstractVCFReader.java
+++ b/uk/ac/sanger/artemis/components/variant/AbstractVCFReader.java
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 
 package uk.ac.sanger.artemis.components.variant;
 
+import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
@@ -52,4 +53,12 @@ public abstract class AbstractVCFReader
     is.read(buf);
     return ByteBuffer.wrap(buf).order(ByteOrder.LITTLE_ENDIAN).getLong();
   }
+  
+  protected String getName()
+  {
+    if(getFileName() == null)
+      return null;
+    File f = new File(getFileName());
+    return f.getName();
+  }
 }
\ No newline at end of file