diff --git a/federationsender/queue/destinationqueue.go b/federationsender/queue/destinationqueue.go
index d4e28a9c4..a1cc7992a 100644
--- a/federationsender/queue/destinationqueue.go
+++ b/federationsender/queue/destinationqueue.go
@@ -69,6 +69,10 @@ type destinationQueue struct {
 // If the queue is empty then it starts a background goroutine to
 // start sending events to that destination.
 func (oq *destinationQueue) sendEvent(event *gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedEvent, receipt *shared.Receipt) {
+	if event == nil {
+		log.Errorf("attempt to send nil PDU with destination %q", oq.destination)
+		return
+	}
 	// Create a transaction ID. We'll either do this if we don't have
 	// one made up yet, or if we've exceeded the number of maximum
 	// events allowed in a single tranaction. We'll reset the counter
@@ -116,6 +120,10 @@ func (oq *destinationQueue) sendEvent(event *gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedEvent, re
 // If the queue is empty then it starts a background goroutine to
 // start sending events to that destination.
 func (oq *destinationQueue) sendEDU(event *gomatrixserverlib.EDU, receipt *shared.Receipt) {
+	if event == nil {
+		log.Errorf("attempt to send nil EDU with destination %q", oq.destination)
+		return
+	}
 	// Create a database entry that associates the given PDU NID with
 	// this destination queue. We'll then be able to retrieve the PDU
 	// later.
@@ -370,6 +378,9 @@ func (oq *destinationQueue) nextTransaction(
 	// Go through PDUs that we retrieved from the database, if any,
 	// and add them into the transaction.
 	for _, pdu := range pdus {
+		if pdu.pdu == nil {
+			continue
+		}
 		// Append the JSON of the event, since this is a json.RawMessage type in the
 		// gomatrixserverlib.Transaction struct
 		t.PDUs = append(t.PDUs, pdu.pdu.JSON())
@@ -378,6 +389,9 @@ func (oq *destinationQueue) nextTransaction(
 
 	// Do the same for pending EDUS in the queue.
 	for _, edu := range edus {
+		if edu.edu == nil {
+			continue
+		}
 		t.EDUs = append(t.EDUs, *edu.edu)
 		eduReceipts = append(pduReceipts, edu.receipt)
 	}
diff --git a/federationsender/storage/shared/storage_edus.go b/federationsender/storage/shared/storage_edus.go
index 86fee1a37..2b9e2622e 100644
--- a/federationsender/storage/shared/storage_edus.go
+++ b/federationsender/storage/shared/storage_edus.go
@@ -52,42 +52,36 @@ func (d *Database) GetPendingEDUs(
 	ctx context.Context,
 	serverName gomatrixserverlib.ServerName,
 	limit int,
-) (
-	edus map[*Receipt]*gomatrixserverlib.EDU,
-	err error,
-) {
-	edus = make(map[*Receipt]*gomatrixserverlib.EDU)
-	err = d.Writer.Do(d.DB, nil, func(txn *sql.Tx) error {
-		nids, err := d.FederationSenderQueueEDUs.SelectQueueEDUs(ctx, txn, serverName, limit)
-		if err != nil {
-			return fmt.Errorf("SelectQueueEDUs: %w", err)
-		}
+) (map[*Receipt]*gomatrixserverlib.EDU, error) {
+	edus := make(map[*Receipt]*gomatrixserverlib.EDU)
+	nids, err := d.FederationSenderQueueEDUs.SelectQueueEDUs(ctx, nil, serverName, limit)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("SelectQueueEDUs: %w", err)
+	}
 
-		retrieve := make([]int64, 0, len(nids))
-		for _, nid := range nids {
-			if edu, ok := d.Cache.GetFederationSenderQueuedEDU(nid); ok {
-				edus[&Receipt{nid}] = edu
-			} else {
-				retrieve = append(retrieve, nid)
-			}
+	retrieve := make([]int64, 0, len(nids))
+	for _, nid := range nids {
+		if edu, ok := d.Cache.GetFederationSenderQueuedEDU(nid); ok {
+			edus[&Receipt{nid}] = edu
+		} else {
+			retrieve = append(retrieve, nid)
 		}
+	}
 
-		blobs, err := d.FederationSenderQueueJSON.SelectQueueJSON(ctx, txn, retrieve)
-		if err != nil {
-			return fmt.Errorf("SelectQueueJSON: %w", err)
+	blobs, err := d.FederationSenderQueueJSON.SelectQueueJSON(ctx, nil, retrieve)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("SelectQueueJSON: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	for nid, blob := range blobs {
+		var event gomatrixserverlib.EDU
+		if err := json.Unmarshal(blob, &event); err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("json.Unmarshal: %w", err)
 		}
+		edus[&Receipt{nid}] = &event
+	}
 
-		for nid, blob := range blobs {
-			var event gomatrixserverlib.EDU
-			if err := json.Unmarshal(blob, &event); err != nil {
-				return fmt.Errorf("json.Unmarshal: %w", err)
-			}
-			edus[&Receipt{nid}] = &event
-		}
-
-		return nil
-	})
-	return
+	return edus, nil
 }
 
 // CleanEDUs cleans up all specified EDUs. This is done when a
diff --git a/federationsender/storage/shared/storage_pdus.go b/federationsender/storage/shared/storage_pdus.go
index bc298a905..a9c4c447b 100644
--- a/federationsender/storage/shared/storage_pdus.go
+++ b/federationsender/storage/shared/storage_pdus.go
@@ -53,48 +53,42 @@ func (d *Database) GetPendingPDUs(
 	ctx context.Context,
 	serverName gomatrixserverlib.ServerName,
 	limit int,
-) (
-	events map[*Receipt]*gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedEvent,
-	err error,
-) {
+) (map[*Receipt]*gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedEvent, error) {
 	// Strictly speaking this doesn't need to be using the writer
 	// since we are only performing selects, but since we don't have
 	// a guarantee of transactional isolation, it's actually useful
 	// to know in SQLite mode that nothing else is trying to modify
 	// the database.
-	events = make(map[*Receipt]*gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedEvent)
-	err = d.Writer.Do(d.DB, nil, func(txn *sql.Tx) error {
-		nids, err := d.FederationSenderQueuePDUs.SelectQueuePDUs(ctx, txn, serverName, limit)
-		if err != nil {
-			return fmt.Errorf("SelectQueuePDUs: %w", err)
-		}
+	events := make(map[*Receipt]*gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedEvent)
+	nids, err := d.FederationSenderQueuePDUs.SelectQueuePDUs(ctx, nil, serverName, limit)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("SelectQueuePDUs: %w", err)
+	}
 
-		retrieve := make([]int64, 0, len(nids))
-		for _, nid := range nids {
-			if event, ok := d.Cache.GetFederationSenderQueuedPDU(nid); ok {
-				events[&Receipt{nid}] = event
-			} else {
-				retrieve = append(retrieve, nid)
-			}
+	retrieve := make([]int64, 0, len(nids))
+	for _, nid := range nids {
+		if event, ok := d.Cache.GetFederationSenderQueuedPDU(nid); ok {
+			events[&Receipt{nid}] = event
+		} else {
+			retrieve = append(retrieve, nid)
 		}
+	}
 
-		blobs, err := d.FederationSenderQueueJSON.SelectQueueJSON(ctx, txn, retrieve)
-		if err != nil {
-			return fmt.Errorf("SelectQueueJSON: %w", err)
+	blobs, err := d.FederationSenderQueueJSON.SelectQueueJSON(ctx, nil, retrieve)
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("SelectQueueJSON: %w", err)
+	}
+
+	for nid, blob := range blobs {
+		var event gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedEvent
+		if err := json.Unmarshal(blob, &event); err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("json.Unmarshal: %w", err)
 		}
+		events[&Receipt{nid}] = &event
+		d.Cache.StoreFederationSenderQueuedPDU(nid, &event)
+	}
 
-		for nid, blob := range blobs {
-			var event gomatrixserverlib.HeaderedEvent
-			if err := json.Unmarshal(blob, &event); err != nil {
-				return fmt.Errorf("json.Unmarshal: %w", err)
-			}
-			events[&Receipt{nid}] = &event
-			d.Cache.StoreFederationSenderQueuedPDU(nid, &event)
-		}
-
-		return nil
-	})
-	return
+	return events, nil
 }
 
 // CleanTransactionPDUs cleans up all associated events for a