statsbody.vm: $value.getString('name') is not a valid reference.

This error occurs when viewing the dashboard with a stats portlet, where one of the issue types has a NULL description. This shouldn't normally happen, as not specifying the description results in it having a '' description (in MySQL):

2005-01-18 17:48:02,074 WARN [velocity] org.apache.velocity.runtime.exception.ReferenceException: reference : template = templates/plugins/jira/portlets/statsbody.vm [line 27,column 32] : $value.getString('name') is not a valid reference.
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.render(ASTReference.java:277)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:55)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTElseIfStatement.render(ASTElseIfStatement.java:78)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTIfStatement.render(ASTIfStatement.java:89)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:230)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.VelocimacroProxy.render(VelocimacroProxy.java:172)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTDirective.render(ASTDirective.java:114)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:55)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTIfStatement.render(ASTIfStatement.java:70)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:55)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.Foreach.render(Foreach.java:166)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTDirective.render(ASTDirective.java:114)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:230)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.directive.Parse.render(Parse.java:181)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTDirective.render(ASTDirective.java:114)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTBlock.render(ASTBlock.java:55)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTIfStatement.render(ASTIfStatement.java:70)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:230)
at org.apache.velocity.Template.merge(Template.java:256)
at org.apache.velocity.app.VelocityEngine.mergeTemplate(VelocityEngine.java:450)
at com.atlassian.velocity.DefaultVelocityManager.getEncodedBody(DefaultVelocityManager.java:97)
at com.atlassian.velocity.DefaultVelocityManager.getEncodedBody(DefaultVelocityManager.java:77)
at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.JiraResourcedModuleDescriptor.getHtml(JiraResourcedModuleDescriptor.java:79)
at com.atlassian.jira.portal.PortletImpl.getViewHtml(PortletImpl.java:47)
at secure._views._dashboardjsp._jspService(_dashboard_jsp.java:1579)