A relay station operable to relay data received from a remote station to one or more communications devices, the relay station comprising: a transceiver circuit operable for transmitting signals to and for receiving signals from the remote station and the one or more communications devices; a communications controller operable: i) to generate a sub-frame comprising an initial part (23-R) including control data and a subsequent part without data; ii) to control said transceiver so that the transceiver transmits the control data in the initial part (23-R) of the sub-frame and then switches to a receive mode to receive part of a sub-frame transmitted by the remote station; iii) to recover relay control data from the received part of the sub-frame transmitted by the remote station; iv) to determine from the recovered relay control data if the received part of the sub-frame also includes user data for the relay station and to recover such user data if included; wherein the relay station is operable to receive data identifying a total number of communications resources used to carry said relay control data and wherein said communications controller is operable to use the received data identifying the total number of communications resources to locate and recover the relay control data from the received part of the sub-frame transmitted from the remote station; and wherein the relay station is operable to receive the data identifying the total number of communications resources used to carry said relay control data prior to receiving said subsequent part of the sub-frame. a transceiver circuit operable for transmitting signals to and for receiving signals from the remote station and the one or more communications devices; a communications controller operable: i) to generate a sub-frame comprising an initial part (23-R) including control data and a subsequent part without data; ii) to control said transceiver so that the transceiver transmits the control data in the initial part (23-R) of the sub-frame and then switches to a receive mode to receive part of a sub-frame transmitted by the remote station; iii) to recover relay control data from the received part of the sub-frame transmitted by the remote station; iv) to determine from the recovered relay control data if the received part of the sub-frame also includes user data for the relay station and to recover such user data if included; i) to generate a sub-frame comprising an initial part (23-R) including control data and a subsequent part without data; ii) to control said transceiver so that the transceiver transmits the control data in the initial part (23-R) of the sub-frame and then switches to a receive mode to receive part of a sub-frame transmitted by the remote station; iii) to recover relay control data from the received part of the sub-frame transmitted by the remote station; iv) to determine from the recovered relay control data if the received part of the sub-frame also includes user data for the relay station and to recover such user data if included; wherein the relay station is operable to receive data identifying a total number of communications resources used to carry said relay control data and wherein said communications controller is operable to use the received data identifying the total number of communications resources to locate and recover the relay control data from the received part of the sub-frame transmitted from the remote station; and wherein the relay station is operable to receive the data identifying the total number of communications resources used to carry said relay control data prior to receiving said subsequent part of the sub-frame.