diff --git a/question/format/xml/format.php b/question/format/xml/format.php
index 4ddff96d502..8bcada5abd7 100644
--- a/question/format/xml/format.php
+++ b/question/format/xml/format.php
@@ -198,7 +198,7 @@ class qformat_xml extends qformat_default {
      * @return object question object
      */
     public function import_headers($question) {
-        global $CFG, $USER;
+        global $USER;
 
         // This routine initialises the question object.
         $qo = $this->defaultquestion();
@@ -255,14 +255,7 @@ class qformat_xml extends qformat_default {
         }
 
         // Read the question tags.
-        if (!empty($CFG->usetags) && array_key_exists('tags', $question['#'])
-                && !empty($question['#']['tags'][0]['#']['tag'])) {
-            require_once($CFG->dirroot.'/tag/lib.php');
-            $qo->tags = array();
-            foreach ($question['#']['tags'][0]['#']['tag'] as $tagdata) {
-                $qo->tags[] = $this->getpath($tagdata, array('#', 'text', 0, '#'), '', true);
-            }
-        }
+        $this->import_question_tags($qo, $question);
 
         return $qo;
     }
@@ -380,6 +373,26 @@ class qformat_xml extends qformat_default {
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Import all the question tags
+     *
+     * @param object $qo the question data that is being constructed.
+     * @param array $questionxml The xml representing the question.
+     * @return array of objects representing the tags in the file.
+     */
+    public function import_question_tags($qo, $questionxml) {
+        global $CFG;
+
+        if (!empty($CFG->usetags) && array_key_exists('tags', $questionxml['#'])
+                && !empty($questionxml['#']['tags'][0]['#']['tag'])) {
+            require_once($CFG->dirroot.'/tag/lib.php');
+            $qo->tags = array();
+            foreach ($questionxml['#']['tags'][0]['#']['tag'] as $tagdata) {
+                $qo->tags[] = $this->getpath($tagdata, array('#', 'text', 0, '#'), '', true);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Import files from a node in the XML.
      * @param array $xml an array of <file> nodes from the the parsed XML.
@@ -505,6 +518,7 @@ class qformat_xml extends qformat_default {
         }
 
         $this->import_hints($qo, $question, true, false, $this->get_format($qo->questiontextformat));
+        $this->import_question_tags($qo, $question);
 
         return $qo;
     }
diff --git a/question/format/xml/tests/xmlformat_test.php b/question/format/xml/tests/xmlformat_test.php
index fbaa93d00c6..acd73bbfd36 100644
--- a/question/format/xml/tests/xmlformat_test.php
+++ b/question/format/xml/tests/xmlformat_test.php
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ global $CFG;
 require_once($CFG->libdir . '/questionlib.php');
 require_once($CFG->dirroot . '/question/format/xml/format.php');
 require_once($CFG->dirroot . '/question/engine/tests/helpers.php');
+require_once($CFG->dirroot . '/tag/lib.php');
 
 
 /**
@@ -302,6 +303,10 @@ END;
     <defaultgrade>0</defaultgrade>
     <penalty>0</penalty>
     <hidden>0</hidden>
+    <tags>
+      <tag><text>tagDescription</text></tag>
+      <tag><text>tagTest</text></tag>
+    </tags>
   </question>';
         $xmldata = xmlize($xml);
 
@@ -317,6 +322,7 @@ END;
         $expectedq->defaultmark = 0;
         $expectedq->length = 0;
         $expectedq->penalty = 0;
+        $expectedq->tags = array('tagDescription', 'tagTest');
 
         $this->assert(new question_check_specified_fields_expectation($expectedq), $q);
     }
@@ -373,6 +379,11 @@ END;
     <defaultgrade>1</defaultgrade>
     <penalty>0</penalty>
     <hidden>0</hidden>
+    <tags>
+      <tag><text>tagEssay</text></tag>
+      <tag><text>tagEssay20</text></tag>
+      <tag><text>tagTest</text></tag>
+    </tags>
   </question>';
         $xmldata = xmlize($xml);
 
@@ -397,6 +408,7 @@ END;
         $expectedq->graderinfo['format'] = FORMAT_MOODLE;
         $expectedq->responsetemplate['text'] = '';
         $expectedq->responsetemplate['format'] = FORMAT_MOODLE;
+        $expectedq->tags = array('tagEssay', 'tagEssay20', 'tagTest');
 
         $this->assert(new question_check_specified_fields_expectation($expectedq), $q);
     }
@@ -426,6 +438,11 @@ END;
     <responsetemplate format="html">
         <text><![CDATA[<p>Here is something <b>really</b> interesting.</p>]]></text>
     </responsetemplate>
+    <tags>
+      <tag><text>tagEssay</text></tag>
+      <tag><text>tagEssay21</text></tag>
+      <tag><text>tagTest</text></tag>
+    </tags>
   </question>';
         $xmldata = xmlize($xml);
 
@@ -450,6 +467,7 @@ END;
         $expectedq->graderinfo['format'] = FORMAT_HTML;
         $expectedq->responsetemplate['text'] = '<p>Here is something <b>really</b> interesting.</p>';
         $expectedq->responsetemplate['format'] = FORMAT_HTML;
+        $expectedq->tags = array('tagEssay', 'tagEssay21', 'tagTest');
 
         $this->assert(new question_check_specified_fields_expectation($expectedq), $q);
     }
@@ -571,6 +589,10 @@ END;
       <shownumcorrect />
       <clearwrong />
     </hint>
+    <tags>
+      <tag><text>tagMatching</text></tag>
+      <tag><text>tagTest</text></tag>
+    </tags>
   </question>';
         $xmldata = xmlize($xml);
 
@@ -607,6 +629,7 @@ END;
         );
         $expectedq->hintshownumcorrect = array(true, true);
         $expectedq->hintclearwrong = array(false, true);
+        $expectedq->tags = array('tagMatching', 'tagTest');
 
         $this->assert(new question_check_specified_fields_expectation($expectedq), $q);
     }
@@ -1343,6 +1366,10 @@ END;
     <hint format="html">
       <text>Hint 2</text>
     </hint>
+    <tags>
+      <tag><text>tagCloze</text></tag>
+      <tag><text>tagTest</text></tag>
+    </tags>
   </question>
 ';
         $xmldata = xmlize($xml);
@@ -1419,6 +1446,7 @@ END;
             1 => $sa,
             2 => $mc,
         );
+        $expectedqa->tags = array('tagCloze', 'tagTest');
 
         $this->assertEquals($expectedqa->hint, $q->hint);
         $this->assertEquals($expectedqa->options->questions[1], $q->options->questions[1]);