A method of operating a wireless telecommunications system for communicating higher layer data from network infrastructure comprises establishing an allocation of radio resources for the network infrastructure equipment to use for transmitting higher layer data to the terminal device during a higher layer data transmission period; transmitting an indication of the allocated radio resources to the terminal device; beginning transmission of the higher layer data to the terminal device at the beginning of the higher layer data transmission period; and subsequently identifying during the higher layer data transmission period whether any of the allocated radio resources which have not yet been used are needed by the network infrastructure equipment for transmitting other data in the wireless telecommunications system.