Claims of a child sex abuse ring operating at some of the most powerful institutions in Britain in the 1980s will be investigated, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has said.
He announced there would be an "independent and authoritative" review of the claims as pressure over allegations of a paedophile ring operating in Westminster intensified.
Mr. Osborne said the investigation needed to "get to the truth" behind the widespread claims of child sex abuse and UK Home Secretary Theresa May would be announcing the details of the review in a statement later on Monday.
It comes after former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Tebbit said there may have been a political cover-up of allegations in the 1980s to "protect the establishment".
A UK Home Office investigation found that 114 official files relating to claims of child abuse by politicians have been lost or destroyed.
These files are in addition to a missing dossier alleging child abuse involving around eight powerful and famous figures at Westminster in the 1980s, handed to the Home Office by the late Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983.
The allegations include claims of abuse by the late Liberal MP Cyril Smith and alleged paedophile activity at parties attended by politicians at the Elm Guest House in Barnes, south-west London.
Mrs. May is expected to will announce an investigation into who knew what and when and why the allegations were missed, overlooked or ignored by public bodies.
It has been suggested that a panel of experts will take evidence from members of the public as part of the investigation but it will stop short of a full public inquiry.
Mr. Osborne told BBC Radio 4's Today programme "The best approach to this is to find an independent and authoritative way to investigate it. The Home Secretary is going to be setting out to the House of Commons in just a few hours' time the approach we are going to take".
"But people can be absolutely clear, these are very, very serious matters, we take them very seriously, we want to get to the truth and nothing but the truth, and we will do it in an independent and authoritative way".
A UK Home Office spokesman said Mrs. May's statement would address key concerns "First, the Home Office's response in the 1980s to papers containing allegations of child abuse.
"And second, the wider issue of whether public bodies and other institutions have taken seriously their duty of care towards children."
Lord Tebbit, who served in a series of senior ministerial posts under former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said the instinct at the time was to protect "the system" and not delve too deeply into uncomfortable allegations.
"At that time I think most people would have thought that the establishment, the system, was to be protected and if a few things had gone wrong here and there that it was more important to protect the system than to delve too far into it".
"That view, I think, was wrong then and it is spectacularly shown to be wrong because the abuses have grown" he told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show.
Asked if he thought there had been a "big political cover-up" at the time, he said: "I think there may well have been".
The British Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered an internal review at the Home Office to "find answers" about the missing files, which will be carried out by its most senior civil servant Mark Sedwill.
The UK Labour party says a full public inquiry is needed. But the British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg says more information is needed.
