Marriage commissioners in one district of Amsterdam will have to undergo a yearly evaluation to make sure their support for homosexual marriage has not changed.

The draconian measure was introduced after two officials in the city’s Nieuw-West district refused to perform same-sex marriages.

However, unlike in Ireland, the marriage commissioners cannot be jailed or fined.

Here, under the Civil Partnership Act passed last year, civil registrars, our equivalent of marriage commissioners, are liable to a fine of €2,000 or a jail sentence of up to six months for refusing to conduct a same sex civil union, even if that refusal is on the grounds of conscientious objection.

One of the officials was employed before 2007 when the city started to only employ people who were prepared to perform the controversial ceremonies.

But the second official is believed to have said that she had no objections to performing same-sex marriage during her interview last year.

Her case is currently being investigated by district officials to ascertain whether she changed her mind or lied. She could face dismissal if it transpires that she lied.

In December 2009 British registrar Lillian Ladele, a Christian who was disciplined by Islington Council because of her objections to civil partnerships, lost her case for religious discrimination at the Court of Appeal.

The following March the UK’s Supreme Court refused Miss Ladele permission for an appeal.

The nation’s highest court dismissed the application, claiming that it did not “raise an arguable point of law of general public importance.”

Miss Ladele said she was “disappointed” by the decisions, and felt like her religious rights had been “trampled by another set of rights”. She is taking her case to Europe.