diff --git a/src/main/groovy/org/codehaus/mojo/spotbugs/SpotBugsMojo.groovy b/src/main/groovy/org/codehaus/mojo/spotbugs/SpotBugsMojo.groovy
index d62c3b89..0e0536a1 100644
--- a/src/main/groovy/org/codehaus/mojo/spotbugs/SpotBugsMojo.groovy
+++ b/src/main/groovy/org/codehaus/mojo/spotbugs/SpotBugsMojo.groovy
@@ -1134,6 +1134,9 @@ class SpotBugsMojo extends AbstractMavenReport implements SpotBugsPluginsTrait {
                 outputFile.createNewFile()
 
                 def writer = outputFile.newWriter(effectiveEncoding)
+				
+                writer.write "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"" + effectiveEncoding + "\"?>"
+				
                 writer.write "\n"
 
                 writer << xmlBuilder.bind { mkp.yield path }