diff --git a/flang/lib/Semantics/symbol.cpp b/flang/lib/Semantics/symbol.cpp
--- a/flang/lib/Semantics/symbol.cpp
+++ b/flang/lib/Semantics/symbol.cpp
@@ -541,13 +541,12 @@
 
 const Symbol *Symbol::GetParentComponent(const Scope *scope) const {
   if (const auto *dtDetails{detailsIf<DerivedTypeDetails>()}) {
-    if (!scope) {
-      scope = scope_;
+    const Scope *localScope = scope ? scope : scope_;
+    if (localScope) {
+      return dtDetails->GetParentComponent(DEREF(localScope));
     }
-    return dtDetails->GetParentComponent(DEREF(scope));
-  } else {
-    return nullptr;
   }
+  return nullptr;
 }
 
 void DerivedTypeDetails::add_component(const Symbol &symbol) {
diff --git a/flang/test/Semantics/bad-forward-type.f90 b/flang/test/Semantics/bad-forward-type.f90
--- a/flang/test/Semantics/bad-forward-type.f90
+++ b/flang/test/Semantics/bad-forward-type.f90
@@ -70,3 +70,13 @@
   type, extends(undef) :: t
   end type
 end subroutine
+
+subroutine s8
+  !ERROR: Derived type 't2' was used but never defined
+  !ERROR: The derived type 't2' was forward-referenced but not defined
+  implicit type(t2)(x)
+  parameter(y=t2(12.3))
+  type t2
+    real :: c
+  end type
+end subroutine