A series of "stomach churning" allegations about child abuse that may have been included in a dossier submitted to the former home secretary Lord Brittan should be investigated by the police, Nick Clegg has said.

The deputy prime minister, who spoke of the "unimaginable suffering" of the alleged victims, called on anyone with information about alleged abuse to contact the police.

Clegg spoke out on his weekly LBC phone-in after Brittan confirmed that he was passed a "bundle" of claims by the late MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983 and gave it to his officials to investigate.

Last year the Tory peer said he could not remember receiving the dossier, but on Wednesday he released a statement saying he could now recollect a meeting with Dickens. He said he had asked officials to look into the claims and could not remembering hearing any more about it.

But a Home Office review from last year found Brittan had written to Dickens in 1984 saying the material had been assessed by the director of public prosecutions as worth pursuing and "passed to the appropriate authorities".

Brittan released a second statement saying he had only just been made aware of last summer's review, which proved that appropriate action had been taken. He said the report was "entirely consistent" with the action he set out in his first statement.

Clegg said that the police should be free to investigate the allegations after a Home Office review last year found that it no longer had the relevant paperwork. The review published a letter from Brittan saying the paperwork had been examined and passed to the prosecuting authorities and the police.

Clegg, who worked for Brittan in Brussels during the former home secretary's time as the European trade commissioner, told LBC: "It is not for me to do the job of the police for them. The police have got to look into these very, very serious allegations of stomach churning offences, if they turn out to be true, of people – in particular people in power in an organised fashion, this is what the allegation is – abusing some of the most vulnerable children in society's care. The police are already looking into these allegations as they are alleged to have occurred in the north west, in south-west London and so on.

"My appeal to anybody who might have any information about this, any evidence and insight on this is get in touch with the police. At the end of the day the only way you can really lift the lid on the past, understand what did and did not happen and most importantly of all deliver justice to the victims who, if these allegations turn out to be true, will have been suffering in violence – unimaginable suffering – is to let the police get on with these enquiries."

Clegg spoke out after the Labour MP Simon Danczuk challenged Brittan earlier in the week to share his knowledge about the file prepared by Dickens. It contained information about the "Paedophile Information Exchange (Pie), about paedophiles operating a network within and around Westminster", Danczuk told the home affairs committee.

Dozens of MPs are now demanding an overarching inquiry into how the government allowed child abusers such as Jimmy Savile to operate in state-run institutions such as the NHS and the BBC. This is being resisted by Downing Street.

Danczuk, who has investigated claims of abuse by the former Liberal MP Cyril Smith, has called for a "Hillsborough-style" inquiry to prevent child abuse allegations involving politicians being "swept under the carpet".

According to the letter from Brittan to Dickens on 20 March 1984, the home secretary wrote to Dickens, saying: "You drew my attention to a number of allegations concerning paedophilia when you called here on 23 November and in subsequent letters.

"I am now able to tell you that, in general terms, the view of the director of public prosecutions is that two of the letters you forwarded could form the basis for inquiries by the police and they are now being passed to the appropriate authorities.

"In other cases there either seems to be inadequate evidence to pursue prosecution, for example the lady who wrote about PIE1 advertising but did not secure any example of the material complained of, or they have already been dealt with in some way by the courts or the police."

The Home Office review, which looked at what information the department received about organised child sex abuse between 1979 and 1999, found no evidence that material had been improperly handled.

"The independent review has confirmed that the Home Office did receive information from Mr Dickens in November 1983 and in January 1984 about alleged child abuse," the report said. "Copies of the material have not been retained but a Home Office file contains a copy letter dated 20 March 1984 from the home secretary in response to Mr Dickens.

"The letter confirms that the information was considered at the time and that any matters requiring investigation were referred to the police."