Business and enterprise minister Mark Prisk has reiterated the coalition government’s focus on providing support to entrepreneurs in the UK.

The comments come after the MP revealed that the UK had reached a significant milestone in mentoring support for entrepreneurs.

Mr Prisk revealed that the government had reached a key milestone in mentoring support at the first Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Liverpool.

The event is the first of its kind to be held in Europe and will see a week of activities, championing entrepreneurial spirit, take place in Liverpool.

Speaking at the event, the MP announced that the Get Mentoring initiative to recruit 15,000 volunteer business mentors had now passed the halfway mark with over 7,500 signed up.

Once these volunteers have been trained, this group will join 11,000 mentors already available through the mentorsme.co.uk portal, which was launched last year.

With 4,000 of the Get Mentoring volunteers already trained, that brings the total available number to 15,000.

Business and enterprise minister Mark Prisk said: “The government is committed to making the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business.

“It’s encouraging that so many people are signing up to be business mentors and that we are continuing to get the support of influential entrepreneurs who are joining our campaign to boost business mentoring across the UK.”