diff --git a/nlds_processors/utils/is_regex.py b/nlds_processors/utils/is_regex.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d421f53b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nlds_processors/utils/is_regex.py
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+# encoding: utf-8
+"""
+is_regex.py
+"""
+__author__ = "Neil Massey"
+__date__ = "03 Oct 2024"
+__copyright__ = "Copyright 2024 United Kingdom Research and Innovation"
+__license__ = "BSD - see LICENSE file in top-level package directory"
+__contact__ = "neil.massey@stfc.ac.uk"
+
+def is_regex(input: str) -> bool:
+    """Check whether the input string contains regular expressions."""
+    regex_matches = (
+        '[', ']', '{', '}', '^', '|', '\s', '\S', '\d', '\D', '\w', '\W',
+        '(:?', '(', ')', '?', '*', '+', '$', '\b', '\B'
+    )
+    for r in regex_matches:
+        if r in input:
+            return True
+    return False
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