diff --git a/ted_sws/metadata_normaliser/services/xml_manifestation_metadata_extractor.py b/ted_sws/metadata_normaliser/services/xml_manifestation_metadata_extractor.py
index 69001d0de..918525a42 100644
--- a/ted_sws/metadata_normaliser/services/xml_manifestation_metadata_extractor.py
+++ b/ted_sws/metadata_normaliser/services/xml_manifestation_metadata_extractor.py
@@ -263,7 +263,7 @@ def _get_normalised_namespaces(self):
         namespaces = dict([node for _, node in ET.iterparse(source=StringIO(self.xml_manifestation.object_data),
                                                             events=['start-ns'])])
 
-        namespaces["manifestation_ns"] = namespaces.pop("")
+        namespaces["manifestation_ns"] = namespaces.pop("") if "" in namespaces.keys() else ""
 
         tmp_dict = namespaces.copy()
         items = tmp_dict.items()
diff --git a/ted_sws/metadata_normaliser/services/xpath_registry.py b/ted_sws/metadata_normaliser/services/xpath_registry.py
index 832522e26..aff6c7dea 100644
--- a/ted_sws/metadata_normaliser/services/xpath_registry.py
+++ b/ted_sws/metadata_normaliser/services/xpath_registry.py
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ def xpath_legal_basis_directive_third(self):
 
     @property
     def xpath_form_number(self):
-        return "manifestation_ns:FORM_SECTION/*[1]"
+        return ".//*[@FORM]"
 
     @property
     def xpath_notice_type(self):