A method of generating a combined sequence by distributing cyclic redundancy check bits within a sequence of control information bits having a block size smaller than a maximum control information block size supported for encoding, the method comprising: determining a cyclic redundancy check generator matrix, wherein the generator matrix is for encoding cyclic redundancy check bits for the maximum control information block size supported for encoding; determining the combined sequence by distributing the cyclic redundancy check bits within the sequence of control information bits, wherein the method further comprises: determining a transmission order of the cyclic redundancy check bits, wherein distributing the cyclic redundancy check bits within the sequence of control information bits is based on a selected column of the cyclic redundancy check generator matrix, the column being selected based on the determined transmission order of the cyclic redundancy check bits; selecting control information bits based on the selected column of the generator matrix in a bottom to top order of the rows without the last bits which are not for transmission owing to a block size of the sequence of control information bits being smaller than the maximum control information block size; appending the cyclic redundancy check bit to the control information bits selected based on the column of the cyclic redundancy check generator matrix corresponding to that cyclic redundancy check bit. determining a cyclic redundancy check generator matrix, wherein the generator matrix is for encoding cyclic redundancy check bits for the maximum control information block size supported for encoding; determining the combined sequence by distributing the cyclic redundancy check bits within the sequence of control information bits, wherein the method further comprises: determining a transmission order of the cyclic redundancy check bits, wherein distributing the cyclic redundancy check bits within the sequence of control information bits is based on a selected column of the cyclic redundancy check generator matrix, the column being selected based on the determined transmission order of the cyclic redundancy check bits; selecting control information bits based on the selected column of the generator matrix in a bottom to top order of the rows without the last bits which are not for transmission owing to a block size of the sequence of control information bits being smaller than the maximum control information block size; appending the cyclic redundancy check bit to the control information bits selected based on the column of the cyclic redundancy check generator matrix corresponding to that cyclic redundancy check bit. determining a transmission order of the cyclic redundancy check bits, wherein distributing the cyclic redundancy check bits within the sequence of control information bits is based on a selected column of the cyclic redundancy check generator matrix, the column being selected based on the determined transmission order of the cyclic redundancy check bits; selecting control information bits based on the selected column of the generator matrix in a bottom to top order of the rows without the last bits which are not for transmission owing to a block size of the sequence of control information bits being smaller than the maximum control information block size; appending the cyclic redundancy check bit to the control information bits selected based on the column of the cyclic redundancy check generator matrix corresponding to that cyclic redundancy check bit. <EOS>