diff --git a/substrate/core/service/src/components.rs b/substrate/core/service/src/components.rs
index d5a4c5bc8a..20f01676a3 100644
--- a/substrate/core/service/src/components.rs
+++ b/substrate/core/service/src/components.rs
@@ -196,6 +196,11 @@ impl<C: Components> MaintainTransactionPool<Self> for C where
 	) -> error::Result<()> {
 		use runtime_primitives::transaction_validity::TransactionValidity;
 
+		// Avoid calling into runtime if there is nothing to prune from the pool anyway.
+		if transaction_pool.status().is_empty() {
+			return Ok(())
+		}
+
 		let block = client.block(id)?;
 		let tags = match block {
 			None => return Ok(()),
@@ -222,7 +227,6 @@ impl<C: Components> MaintainTransactionPool<Self> for C where
 	}
 }
 
-
 /// The super trait that combines all required traits a `Service` needs to implement.
 pub trait ServiceTrait<C: Components>:
 	Deref<Target = Service<C>>
diff --git a/substrate/core/transaction-pool/graph/src/base_pool.rs b/substrate/core/transaction-pool/graph/src/base_pool.rs
index e6ad3cd6dd..2e96cc75c2 100644
--- a/substrate/core/transaction-pool/graph/src/base_pool.rs
+++ b/substrate/core/transaction-pool/graph/src/base_pool.rs
@@ -294,6 +294,13 @@ pub struct Status {
 	pub future: usize,
 }
 
+impl Status {
+	/// Returns true if the are no transactions in the pool.
+	pub fn is_empty(&self) -> bool {
+		self.ready == 0 && self.future == 0
+	}
+}
+
 #[cfg(test)]
 mod tests {
 	use super::*;